10 Questions Answered (Q&A)

1. When we die, aren’t we just "gone"?

There is no way to know. For all of recorded time and farther back, people believed in a life after this one. Mostly, a reward to living the correct way. We don’t know if there is something past this life at all. We can’t prove there is or is not. It does seem logically to be a method of controlling how people act to have an afterlife of either reward or punishment that lasts forever. But every culture had some for of afterlife with very few not having that. There could be something to it. Logically speaking, we just stop existing - we are “gone”. But I chose to believe like a lot of others that there is another life after this, possibly endless cycles of being born into another life in another dimension. We can’t know. And if I am wrong and there is no afterlife, I won’t know, that’s the best part.

2. Do you know your life is yours to live?

All to well, to the point I kind of destroyed the chance of aging well and having a long life. But hay, it was a fun ride up until the point I almost died and realized I’ve been very foolish.

3. Does death erase everything in one's life who dies?

No, the impact of your actions live on long after you have died, unless you lived in a cave all your life with no contact with others. Everything we do effects others, even if it is just slightly. People who loved us, or hated us, or just just knew us keep on remembering we existed. For most of us, we are not “erased” for a generation or two after we die. For some, they will be remembered as long as humans exist.

4. When do you do what you don't want to?

All the time. I don’t want to cook dinner, but no one else ever will. I don’t want to do laundry, but I do need to have clean clothing to be presentable in our society. Some days I don’t want to get out of bed, but people count on me doing a few things every day, and would be sad if I did not do them. We do things we don’t want all the time if we are responsible people. Most people don’t want to work, but if you have kids to support, you probably should, or you will make them suffer for your actions (or lack of actions).

5. Do we choose our life before birth?

I rather think not. I’d not have chosen my life if I had any sense at all beforehand. There has always been the idea that our life is laid out for us long before we exist, and there seems to be some evidence of this. But I choose to believe in free will - but if I’m wrong, I’m meant to think we have free will. But I’ve not heard of any school of thought that says we choose our life before birth. There could be the possibility (extremely remote) that in a past life I did something horribly wrong, and chose this life out of choices of punishment given to me.

6. Do you always get what your heart desires?

Almost never. Turns out almost everything I desire needs money and I have very little of that. There is the option to change what I desire, but I give into social pressure and the want of possessions and pleasures. There are people who simply want to be happy and need almost nothing to be happy. They do get what they desire almost always.

7. When did you gain consciousness as a kid?

That is widely debated. Consciousness is being aware of yourself as a living being. You have a knowledge you exist. Some think we are born this way and most think we gain this as a young child. For some because of disability of the mind, they never do. Others may take longer than most and some less time than most. It’s impossible to know, as no one seems to remember the moment we realized this.

8. Do you ever desire death?

Yes. The desire is momentary, but I’d be lying if I said I never did. Maybe a minute or two I think I’d be better off dead, so there would be no more suffering. Then it passes and I go on about my life as I always have. I do know that in certain circumstances like terminal illness, I will want to have life terminated medically, but until then, I don’t often desire death.

9. How does it feel to spend your life without the love of your life?

Liberating. I don’t need a life partner to be validated. Believe it or not, some of us don’t ever want a life partner. For the look of how many people get divorced these days, not many people will ever know the love of their life.

10. At what age did your parents tell you the meaning of life?

There is no meaning to life, it simply exists. The meaning of life if there was one would be unknowable to the vast majority of people. We can derive a purpose to our lives, but an actual meaning for existence is something I don’t think we have. Now cultures have come up will all kinds of things like “God created up to do his work.” But is this a meaning to life, or a justification to quiet out wondering thoughts? I, for one, will never know.