On Death

What is the meaning of life? Danny suggests that the meaning of life is to find the meaning of life - that there is no ultimate meaning, and that everyone changes what he defines to be the meaning of his life through its course. Perhaps it's like a dog chasing after its own tail, and while we're all caught up in it, it seems absorbing, and it captures our every imagination. And then the dog finds something else to chase, and it does so, forgetting its initial quest. The meaning of life has changed for the dog, but which of the quests of life is the greatest?

(Sidenote: This notion, that of one's meaning and essence in life being a consequence of his existence, and not the cause of it, is a trademark of Existentialist philosophy. Basically it states: I exist, therefore, I create a meaning out of my life. Satre, in his "Essays in Existentialism", further highlights this consciousness of being thrown into existence in the following fashion: "If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.")

Anyway, no matter what our meaning in life was.... we die. No matter how we lived our life - happily, sadly, angrily, or chasing the wind, we all die. And when we come to that time, nothing matters anymore. In the long run, nothing matters. It's both depressing and gratifying. Depressing because our victories and joys will all come to an end. Gratifying because our sorrows and disappointments and mistakes will also come to an end.

With death, we can take a longer view of things. Haknuna Matata - to leave the past behind and move forward. Because in the long run, many things don't matter. Even in the medium run - 10 to 20 years from now - most of our current sorrows would have sorted themselves out, only mere specks in the seas of our memories, mere footnotes in our lives.

Even if that were not the case, in the long run, death the great leveler ensures that .... "nothing really matters... to me" (Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody)