photo by nattu
“Living forever” is about being with our loved ones forever, in life. And being with our friends and everyone else who has decided to stick around.
It’s funny how immortality is so often portrayed as a curse in our culture. The poor ol’ immortal person gets to grow older and older and all their friends and family die off and they are left wandering around in eternity all alone, old and miserable. It never seems to occur to the creators of these stories that an immortal person might happen to have an immortal family.
I once saw a beautifully illustrated children’s book in the local bookshop that was about a boy who lived forever, or something like that (I don’t remember its name). I looked through it thinking “wow, this guy’s onto it”. Then came the punchline where we get to see that living forever is a dreadful thing—I almost felt ill. Now I’m sure the author meant me no harm—he was simply illustrating life as he saw it, and was trying to be helpful. I think it’s refreshing many people are seeing life a little differently to his perceptions.
No-one would want to be left the only immortal person, I would imagine. But in reality—outside the world of storybooks, movies and curses—if one person can be immortal, then everyone else can, if they want to. So if we become immortal ourselves, it’s highly likely the people who are important to us will connect with our energy and do it too.
I’d also suggest that if more people start seeing themselves as being immortal in their physical body, even more will catch on. I’d like to think it would become the “norm”, actually.
A common outlook is that we will be united with loved ones who have passed on when we die ourselves. I personally prefer to think we will meet them again when they reincarnate and join us in life again.
One of my early posts on this blog was Ten reasons to decide to live forever. I’ll repeat number 7 here:
…So you can watch children grow up and watch adults grow up more. And so they can follow your example and decide to live forever too, and you can all be together always.
Was most excited that Hunter from Hunter Nutall.com picked up my previous post in his article Desegregating Our Minds, and took the discussion further.
I’d love to hear what you think, if you would like to leave a comment below
Cheers – Robin
Robin,
Very enlightening article. Living a long life is an implicit goal we all have but we do not think of stigma it carries as life moves on like a tragic movie scene. At some point, I’m sure we may feel that life without the friends and family to cherish moments is a burden.
Thanks
Shilpan
Interesting. Have you ever thought about living forever physically? Just from what we know about the body and how it continues to replace cells or skin why we die in the physical sense? just thinking.
But Robin, if you look around you, this is how the world works, isn’t it? There’s a circle of life and all living things, including plants and animals, eventually die and make room for the next generation. Can we, SHOULD we, really challenge that? Think about a field where the old plants don’t make room for the new plants… eventually everything will die.
Ok, I see what you’re saying and I also see Vered’s point. Can you viably reconcile both perspective?
Thanks for your comments everyone
@Shilpan – I’m glad you want to lead a long life! Thanks
@Natural – Good thinking – this whole blog is about living forever physically!
@Vered – I am challenging “that” – which is what this blog is about. If you are interested in exploring these ideas further, I suggest you have a look at the posts on the ‘Featured posts’ page. The ‘Plenty for everyone’ post is perhaps the one that deals most with what you are saying (and there’s more to come!)
@Chris – I suggest you have a look through my Featured posts page, as I said to Vered, if you want to see how I would deal with these issues. It’s a little too large a field to deal with in the comments section, but basically, the idea is that if we change our outlook/beliefs, anything can change.
Cheers everyone, and thanks again.
dear robin, to be always in good company as immortal, that is fine post. Thank you.
Hi Robin
“Living Forever”…I think we can actually “live forever” through the ‘imprints’ we create on other people’s lives. Death is inevitable but the memories we’ll leave to our family and friends are forever.
Hmmn about immortality, that’s the eternal life promised to be received by those who lived according to God’s teachings (on the day of judgment).
Thanks Robin for your comment on my blog.
Happy blogging! 🙂
@rainer – thanks – lovely to hear from you
@anmari – and thanks to you for visiting. In this blog I am questioning the belief that “death is inevitable”, and suggesting that death is actually caused by that belief. I think these ideas are very consistent with Christian teachings about “eternal life” – to those of us who choose to see them that way (could the “day of judgement” be something we can choose to experience right now?)
Robin, the post is very interesting. What you say about immortality being frequently portrayed as a curse is absolute truth… that’s the norm for mass media.
The idea of looking at ourselves as immortal beings seems very appealing to me. But we have to follow it as a “practical” notion, never as just an idea.
Keep up the good work!
i think each of us wanted to live forever and same with those people around us…but as the saying goes we have a limitation, as human and children of God.Time will come we will also facint the so called death and that is something our beyond control….but i believe in eternal life as God promise everlasting love…in a place wherein all of us where equal and only love reigns.In the kingdom of God where we live forever, our life here on earth is just temporary but not in God’s place…