How often do you think about your mortality?

Just curious- how often do you remember that, eventually, you're going to die? I think about it often. Not that I expect it to happen any time soon, but for me it puts things in perspective and reminds me to appreciate things. In addition, it motivates me to accomplish things, so, hopefully, when I'm going down for the final count I won't be thinking, gosh, I pissed away a lot of years with nothing to show for it.

I answered "daily" even though the real answer is between that and a couple times of month -- more like "several times each week." But for me it's not a morbid thing at all, just an awareness that this physical existance is transient.

Thanks a lot i was trying not to think about it today =p

I think about it once a minute on the average. Sometimes in a "Well..perhaps I'll get some rest when I die" kinda way, at other times in a "Shit I got nothing accomplished" kinda way..and still others times in a "The World is Doomed!" kinda way.

I use to think about death quite a bit. The idea terrified me. Never handled funerals well or dead bodies of relatives when you had to view them at a wake. Couldnt understand why we couldnt just live forever!
Anyhow, one day peace came into my life; and I no longer think on dead the same way. As far as I am concerned, a new chapter starts. I get to be with the One I believe created me, and that is a really wonderful thought

I hardly ever think about my own mortality anymore, since I know I'll just end up back here like I have the last couple dozen times. Body dies, just get another one. Frankly by the time they get to be 70 or 80 they're pretty much ready to be traded in. I do occasionally worry that I've gotten so weak or lacking in awareness that I'd just end up stuck as a rock or something.

I almost never think about mortality. It is beyond my control and I leave it in Gods hands.

I think about it often. I am not afraid of actually dying, but I would be lying if I said I am not afraid of the conditions that will lead to my death, whether it is caused by violence, an accident or disease.

At least in my view, death is a much preferred alternative to living under certain conditions.

T

Now troubles are many they're as, deep as a well
I can swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell
Swear there ain't no heaven and I pray there ain't no hell
But I'll never know by living only my, dyin' will tell yes only my
Dyin' will tell yeah, only my dyin' will tell.

And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born in this world to carry on, to carry on, yeah-yeah.

--Blood, Sweat, & Tears

I believe that "thinking" about mortality and "worrying" about it are two different concepts.

I think about mortality every day because something always reminds me that time here is unpredictable and even if one lives to 100, short.

I think about it when I read the news, or talk with someone who has lost a person they loved or when I see a dead animal on the side of the road or nearly have a car accident, or see someone else have a car accident.

I think about it when I realize I have so many things I want to do and so little time left to do them even if I were to live to be a hundered years old.

I think about it when my body turns on me and slaps me around for not taking care if it well enough.

As each day passes, there are a thousand ways that I am reminded of my mortality. I don't worry much about it though, because aside from having a little common sense, there is really not much I can do to change it. No one I know of has succeeded so far anyway.

So my focus is on doing the best I can with the time that I have. Kind of like enjoying good chocolate , I know it's not going to last forever so I break off savory little bits at a time and really enjoy them, trying to make them last as long as I can without breaking my tooth on a nut.

All in all, I'm more worried about how my family will handle it, how much it's going to hurt and how much it's going to cost than I am about actually dying. I try and not think about that any more than is necessary to lessen the impact on those I love.

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I think about ethics every day as far as morality is concerned that is a religious quandry that I would rather not be weighted with. But as far as death and morality are concerned, if you are christian you only need to ask forgiveness before you die in some cases and make certain your family lights a candle in others. Morality is a slippery gig for me, it relies upon ones feelings about the supernatural. Ethics though relies upon logic and ones feelings about the absolute. I lean towards ethics. Did I say that already...yes so you know ethics yes morality only if it applies to logic.

I only think about it in the middle of one of those horrible sleepless nights when everything seems bad. During the day life's too hectic to think about it.

I never worry about death, but I think about death on a daily basis. I always think about it in terms of my inability to complete goals to satisfaction.

Exactly!

Same here. No one should take growing old for granted.



True. I also keep in mind something Paul McCartney said long ago in response to rumors that he was dead. He dismissed the rumor, then joked something like "then again, if I were dead I'd be the last person to know it" Assuming there's no afterlife or reincarnation, it's not like I'd be aware of my predicament.



Good analogy.

I finish every day I survive with a little 'hah! eat shit, Grim Reaper!' dance.

No, really.

Interesting post.

The philosopher Heidegger would argue that death dominates everything we do, and all of our life is about filling the hole that is mortality.

Alternatively...

"It's no use reminding yourself daily that you are mortal: it will be brought home to you soon enough" - Albert Camus


This one ought to be true, but living sensibly within limitations and appreciating what you have aren't necessarily my strong points:

"Belief in our mortality, the sense that we are eventually going to crack up and be extinguished like the flame of a candle, I say, is a gloriously fine thing. It makes us sober; it makes us a little sad; and many of us it makes poetic. But above all, it makes it possible for us to make up our mind and arrange to live sensibly, truthfully, and always with a sense of our own limitations." - anonymous (he said a lot, that guy)

Hee heee...
another quote that'd make a grand signature

Gosh, am I the only one around who thinks that convincing people that they are nothing more than their bodies and that they are going to die is one of the most horrible tricks ever perpetrated on humanity? It's not a blessing. It doesn't make life happier or more precious. It just steals away your future.

Death, the sweet liberator of life,
the next step to the next life,
and the next,
till we awaken
in Loves Embrace.

Whenever someone hands me their beer and says " Hey, watch this"

Otherwise I don't think about the inevitable....it will happen when and where it chooses I just hope it doesn't involve fire or a big man named bubba in a prison setting.

I was 14 when I lost my grandmother, I watched her die over 7 years from O-cell Cancer. I was with her every day.
I was 23 when I was called and told a friend who was 2 weeks away from his 21st birthday had passed away in his sleep.

Death is all around us.

What is there to think about? It's not like anyone evaded death. It will happen, to each and every one of us.

I prefer to think about living.

There is no future, only now.

Thinking about ones mortality can help one live there life to the fullest. People who think of life tend (not always) to say I can do that tomorrow. People who think about there mortality tend (not always) to say I better do that today because there may not be a tomorrow. I never wait to tell ones that I love that I love them. I never walk away from a fight mad. When I part from loved ones I want to go happy and loving. So if one of does not come back the other does not feel bad about it.