I've been thinking about death quite a bit recently. I realise how morbid that sounds, but so many public figures have died recently. Of course, as I blogged about last time, the world lost the legend that is Nelson Mandela not long ago. More recently the actor Peter O'Toole passed away and a couple of months ago so did Lou Reed.
In my personal life as well, the 12th December 2013 marked 10 years since I lost my uncle. My uncle was an amazing person. And his love of living made his death hit a lot harder; I'd also never known anybody to die before and, although it's not a first that is often talked about, a first death is a hard thing to come to terms with (as is any death of someone you love)
But this post is more about life than death.
I studied medieval and early modern English history at school for my A-levels. At that time in history, death was very much central to the experience of life. This was due, mostly, to the Christian belief in the afterlife and the fate of the immortal soul and life on earth was seen just as a transitionary phase. Although, the reformation changed some beliefs (notably purgatory) about life after death, it still remained that death shaped life.
Although this may seem a depressing way to live, it doesn't have to be. Remembering that you will die can help you to gain perspective in a lot of things. Asking yourself will this matter when I die can make you care less about petty arguments and exam grades and focus more on relationships and experiences.
It is also something all living things have in common: we all will live, we all will die. (As Fight Club taught us: 'On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero')
I quote too much, but I will leave you with a quotation from Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech. Regardless of his personal life, it is pretty much agreed on that Jobs was successful during his life and his ideas on living are definitely worth considering. Just like my uncle, he seemed to love life and that is, at least by my standards, commendable:
“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”
(Steve Jobs)
So yeah, this post is basically saying YOLO, make the most of it.
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