5 ms·

Sometimes an extra 10 months means seeing your child graduate college / get married / have your first grandchild.

• ams6110 8y ago
  Which is really more for them than for you. When you're dead, it won't matter to you that you saw those things, but it might matter to your child for the rest of his/her life.
  • selectodude 8y ago
    Most people don’t want to die, surprisingly.
  • nine_k 8y ago
    Remember: "today is the first day of the rest of your life". The fact that the rest of one's life is "short" compared to someone else's does not mean that it's less subjectively meaningful.
  • vaylian 8y ago
    It is not about seeing these things as an uninvolved observer. It is about receiving a share of an important moment that is meaningful on a personal level. And these are some of the things that make life worth living. We do not know if there is a meaning to life. But on a human level we are connected through social connections and these people who are connected to us can give life a meaning on some level. I also disagree that death makes you no longer care. Yes, you as a person supported by a mortal body will no longer feel anything. But the concepts that made up your personality and the actions you took while being alive will still influence the events in the world. You cannot react any more, but most people at least define a written will for the time after they are dead. Just take the nobel prize. It is based on a will that wants to shape the world for the better long after the body of Alfred Nobel has died. The nobel prize is still going strong.
  • knodi123 8y ago
    Yeah, but when your child dies, it won't matter to them anymore either. You can't bet just 50% on nihilism. Either go all in or acknowledge that people want to have as many positive experiences as they can, no matter how much time they have left.