“IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO DIE, I THINK THEY PROBABLY WOULDN'T LIVE AT ALL.”
~ Death, Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
There are so many ways you can think about this. At first glance, it seems to contradict the idea of “living for today”, but really, I think it’s the same idea from a different angle.
In Pratchett’s Reaper Man, Death—a being unused to the constraints of time—is faced with the knowledge that, as a living being, he will one day die. For him, this is a fact that inspires great fear, fear so oppressive that it disrupts necessary, everyday activities like sleep. I’m sure that many of us experience such fears and uncertainties at some point in our lives—What will happen to me? What about the people that I love?—and they most certainly make it hard to concentrate on living. If people knew when they were going to die, I wonder who would be consumed by despair and who would actually be able to take advantage of the time they have. To know and feel the deadline drawing ever closer—it would certainly be an unpleasant piece of knowledge to be burdened with.
On the other hand, sometimes, the knowledge that we must all one day move on can inspire people to live their lives more fully. It can be the push that people need to go ahead and take a risk or to try something new, knowing that we may not have a second chance. It can be a bit morbid, but I think it works.
And perhaps the knowledge of the ephemeral nature of our own lives can help us put things in perspective—help rearrange our priorities.
As I write these things, this is a song that comes to mind.
Reminds me of the "Machine of Death" anthology: "A collection of stories about people who know how they will die". How, not when (mostly), but similar ideas about how knowledge affects your life. And similar thoughts that perhaps I'd rather not know.
ReplyDelete…but yeah, would I up my schedule on things I want to do "some day"? Probably? And therefore, shouldn't I do that anyway?
...? Well, that was a confusing last sentence. Personally, I'm pretty happy not knowing. People have enough things to worry about without adding something like that.
DeleteWas the anthology any good? Reminds me of a really morbid anime that our cousin told us about (which I will never watch) on people who get notices about when they're going to be killed...
Yes, it was good, actually! It's also free, if you want it for free. And the last sentence was supposed to mean "if I would do something 'later', I should just do it soon/now".
Delete(sorry for delayed response…no notification of reply)