Things that occur or last for an indefinite amount of time may have an impact at first, but that meaning or purpose begins to dilute itself over time. Part of the beauty of life is that it is fleeting like a candle in the wind. Despite our fear and trepidation at the thought of our own demise, in dying we give our actions value. There is only a finite amount of time to commit these actions, so when we die we are measured by the sum of them. Time is the most precious resource of man, so we should take care that it not be taken for granted. It will be extinguished for each one of us before we know it.
Your comments about time remind me of that discussion we had relatively early in the semester about whether or not we perform certain actions in life because we know we will die, or will run out of time. That day got pretty rowdy as people "discussed" if we live out our lives knowing we are going to die or for some other reason, whether its subconsciously or not. Regardless of your stance on that, I think there is some truth behind the fact that when we come into this world all we are guaranteed is that we will eventually die, so in that aspect we live in a way such that we try to accomplish as much as possible before our time is up (thus giving us "meaning" in life). So under these circumstances, yes I do believe that death can give our lives meaning.
If there was no death what would be the point of living, of getting up day after day and steadily working towards a goal? With an absence of death there would be an absence of a deadline, and I know I would adopt the mentality of there is always tomorrow to get this done. In essence I believe death adds meaning to life because it gives people a sense of purpose and direction and without these things we drift and simply exist without meaning.
Could the lack of death also lead to a lack of self-interests though? Sure, people would be selfish for a time, but doesn't an eternity of self-centeredness eventually get boring. I think people would possibly begin acting charitably out of boredom and a need to find purpose if there was no death.
My thoughts exactly. Death is the everlasting motivator. We all know that we're going to die at some point, therefore you know you only have so much time to reach whatever goals you may have in your life.
Death is very important when it comes to life. Death brings balance to life and can not only give one purpose but can remind one to appreciate the little things that life has to offer. Death also forces one to take time and cherish the ones that are around you that you care and love because death could strike any of them at any time.
I believe that death definitely gives life meaning. We only have a certain amount of time to live and I think we need to cherish that and maximize how we spend that time. Just think, if you were told that you only had 6 months to a year to live would you live that differently than if you thought you had 30, 40, 50 more years to live? This is why I believe in "Carpe Diem" - seize the day and live every day to the fullest!
I agree with the comments above. I think that most people would do the same kind of things if there were no death but I think it would take a much longer time to do them. Chelsea makes a good point. If you had a very short time to live, you would not wast a moment. If you lived forever the opposite would happen; you would not place a high value on time and would therefore waste a lot of time.
I 100% believe that death gives life meaning. For many people, death is a very frightening thing. For others, they know not when its coming. I believe that death can allow people to realize that time here on Earth is very short - even short for some. Bearing this in mind, I believe that a great many people try to be as happy as possible as well as making loved ones, or even a lover, happy within that time. Chelsea made an excellent quotation that practically sums up my comment: "Carpe Diem." I too, am a strong believer in this and that it is an excellent way to even "combat" thinking about death.
Crazy this blog is up because just the other day my cousin who plays football for TMC went to lexington for a typical party on saturday and had the wake up call of his life. He told me that on the way back home a semi truck cut in front of them and cause them to swerve making the car spin several times and eventually almost flipping over the guard rail. He said one friend told him that he could see his life flash before him in an instant and he told me that he was in so much shock and that thankfully they did not get injured he is so thankful and is counting his blessings.
After hearing that story he told me that he will enjoy life day by day and cherish everything that he does. I too will cherish every second that i am alive and enjoy it with the new and old people that will come in and out of my life and make impacts throughout. Peace & Love
I believe death can give life meaning, but I do not think death is the reason that motivates us to live. If someone was ever on the brink of death and got another chance, I could certainly see how they would feel that death gives life meaning. Being close to death and realizing how precious life is, death can certainly give life meaning in that regard. However, I would not agree with death motivating people to live. I live life to live, meaning I wake up each day and do what I want to without feeling like I have to hurry and accomplish certain things. I like what Dalton said about us subconsciously knowing that we care going to die. Of course we are going to die, but is that a means to sit around and say "I better do this because I could die," absolutely not. My dad always told me, "don't get worked over things that you have no control over." This has stuck with me through the years and is a perfect quote for this scenario. Unless you purposely kill yourself, you do not now when death will come, so why worry about. I have thousands of years to be dead, but only a fraction of time to live. I am certainly not going to waste them thinking about something that I have the rest of my dead time to do, I am going to live.
I don't believe death gives life meaning. I think you have to give life its own meaning. Death is death. There is no getting around it. Life, on the other hand, has so many possibilities. The possiblities you choose are what give your life meaning.
I believe that death can give life some meaning, but like Jeramie said, I do not believe that it is all the motivation behind living. Without death there is no life, and without life there is no death. We need both to coexist with one another in order for both aspects to have meaning. So in this way I believe that death gives life. I also believe that seeing or witnessing death can encourage someone or motivate someone to start living more than what they were doing already. I think that living can be inspired by others who are living. I think by seeing life, it can be inspirational to others to live. I have always lived with the idea that death is inevitable and the only thing that we have control over is our life.
This is an interesting question. I understand Andy's argument that if we had no limit on life, we would not value life. Therefore, death is meaningful.
But death is just a time limit on what we can do. Death itself isn't meaninful. It just happens, to you and you and you. Death can always be meaningless--think about murders, or random accidents. The death was meaningless, but the life the individual was living was not. The simple act of living gives us meaning. We may be motivated to accomplish certain things because of our inevitable time limit, but it does not that if death intervenes before we accomplish those tasks that our life is without meaning. What you choose to do with your life, whether you fulfill it or not, gives meaning.
I do believe that death gives life meaning and in contrast to Annie and Jeramie, I do believe that it motivates us to live. Maybe it is not the only factor, and we probably don't think about it often at all, but live until we die. Might as well do that right? Live life in the meantime. Your life can be given meaning by the way you choose to live it, but we all know death is at the end. Even though we may not think about doing something because death is inevitable, we are doing it today because we want to do it (if we die then we can no longer do it, even if we are not directing thinking that).
I think that death gives life meaning only when we are faced with death itself. When someone tells you that you only have a certain amount of time left, suddenly everything matters, and life becomes more meaningful in the following days, weeks, years, etc. When you're 21 years old, you do stupid things. We binge drink, eat crappy food, and have no cares other than what is happening this weekend, how am I going to pass this class, and is he really going to break up with me. All the things worried about as a normal 21 year old pertain with the present or the near future. Therefore, I think that this class has opened my eyes into really being aware that death can come at anytime or anyplace. Therefore every day should have meaning and everyday should be lived like it could be the last.
In my opinion death definitely gives meaning to life. If people were to live forever why would they ever do anything worthwhile? They wouldn't, simply because they could do it tomorrow, the next day, or the next and so on. Death encourages to people to accomplish the goals they have established in their life because they never know when their last day is.
Everyone is terminal.... something that stuck out at me during the visit from the nurse and social worker from Hospice. I believe death gives life meaning in the sense of everyone has a goal or dream they want to accomplish before they kick the can so to speak. But in the same sense a person has to want to give lif meaning. It's like the song by Tim Mcgraw "Live like you were dying." To much of the time we dont give life meaning until we have a traumatic event happen to oursleves or someone close to us. Its the action that triggers us to think what am I really doing with my life right now. I think the movie the bucket list opened up peoples eyes. You only have one life to live do what you love and love what you do.
I do not think that death gives life meaning. On headstones, the birth year and death year are written. However, what is more important than these dates is the dash inbetween them. I think that what a person does in life is what gives it meaning. Meaning, in life is created by the achievements of a person, not by their death. However, when someone dies, people tend to finally reminisce and find meaning in that person's life.
i do not look at death as a motivator. I think you have to find other things in like to motivate you or to keep you going through life. Thinking about death can be depressing and in my opinion can encourage people to do nothing if they are motivated by death. I think that because if you are motivated by death that means your probably fearing it making it seem like youll do everything to make sure you dont die. I think about life and making sure i get the most out of it before its my time so that way i can go in peace knowing there isnt one more thing i would do differently.
By taking this course, it has changed me in some ways, mostly in my work. By working with the demented elderly, it is easy to forget that they are still human. Harsh to say, but it is true. In taking this class it has shown me different aspect and points of view people have on death. What struck me most was the last video that we watched in class. Since I sometimes work with those who cannot talk back to me, it hit home seeing everything through his point of view. After this course, it really makes me slow down and enjoy more of my life. It makes me think less about what may happen and what has happened and think more about the present. I definitely think more about the feelings of those who I take care of. While even before the class I thought about the feelings of my residents, after this class this has been heightened. I try and show as much respect that I can for the residents that I look after.
Like Plato's Rule of Opposites says, there can't be one without the other. That being said, I think that death obviously does give life meaning. It's what motivate everything.
I think death gives life meaning, but one reason that I think that is because I have never experienced what it would be like to live without end. Perhaps if I was immortal, I would think differently. However, since I am mortal, I think death gives life meaning because it puts a duration on everything. We know that there is an end to what we can do here, so we need to do whatever it is that we want to do before that timer hits zero.
I would like to be immortal just to see what it would be like. I am not sure if I would succumb to boredom, or if I would use the chance to learn everything and do everything that is possible. Immortality would give us the chance to literally learn everything. There would be no end to what would could do. If it were possible, mankind could potentially solve many problems that it has today because it wouldn't be able to shift the troubles onto the next generation. Everyone would need to face up to reality. I think about these situations fairly often, and I have come up with various scenarios as to what might happen. That is the optimistic view, but the pessimistic view is that all of mankind would fall into slovenliness. Laziness and sloth would prevail throughout the world leading to a stagnation of all that exists.
I do believe that death gives meaning to our lives. I say this because if there was no death then everybody could take everything for granted and our lives would have no value. I look at life being valuable because it can be lost. Since we know our existence will end someday we can care about how we live to get the most out of them before we die.
Ok so here's my theory and its a dosey. I dont think death adds meaning to life because it creates an incredibly small window in which your life can have an impact on the universe. If death didn't exsist, creating life would be a even bigger deal for humans than it is now. Imagine a world without death, when you have a baby that will be on the earth for the rest of eternity. It seems like making the descision to have one would be HUGE! I think we would put in a culture where, if you wanted a baby, you would have to fill out an application and pass through several background checks.
I do think death is usefull to human socity as a way of cycling old ideals with new ones, and ensuring the human race doesn't stagnate the way chinese socity did in the past once it clung on to Confucian ideals. Just think of how many racists would still be around if plantation owners still walked the earth.
Things that occur or last for an indefinite amount of time may have an impact at first, but that meaning or purpose begins to dilute itself over time. Part of the beauty of life is that it is fleeting like a candle in the wind. Despite our fear and trepidation at the thought of our own demise, in dying we give our actions value. There is only a finite amount of time to commit these actions, so when we die we are measured by the sum of them. Time is the most precious resource of man, so we should take care that it not be taken for granted. It will be extinguished for each one of us before we know it.
ReplyDeleteYour comments about time remind me of that discussion we had relatively early in the semester about whether or not we perform certain actions in life because we know we will die, or will run out of time. That day got pretty rowdy as people "discussed" if we live out our lives knowing we are going to die or for some other reason, whether its subconsciously or not. Regardless of your stance on that, I think there is some truth behind the fact that when we come into this world all we are guaranteed is that we will eventually die, so in that aspect we live in a way such that we try to accomplish as much as possible before our time is up (thus giving us "meaning" in life). So under these circumstances, yes I do believe that death can give our lives meaning.
DeleteIf there was no death what would be the point of living, of getting up day after day and steadily working towards a goal? With an absence of death there would be an absence of a deadline, and I know I would adopt the mentality of there is always tomorrow to get this done. In essence I believe death adds meaning to life because it gives people a sense of purpose and direction and without these things we drift and simply exist without meaning.
ReplyDeleteCould the lack of death also lead to a lack of self-interests though? Sure, people would be selfish for a time, but doesn't an eternity of self-centeredness eventually get boring. I think people would possibly begin acting charitably out of boredom and a need to find purpose if there was no death.
DeleteMy thoughts exactly. Death is the everlasting motivator. We all know that we're going to die at some point, therefore you know you only have so much time to reach whatever goals you may have in your life.
DeleteI like the "evelasting motivator" term. That's what I see it as, as well.
DeleteDeath is very important when it comes to life. Death brings balance to life and can not only give one purpose but can remind one to appreciate the little things that life has to offer. Death also forces one to take time and cherish the ones that are around you that you care and love because death could strike any of them at any time.
ReplyDeleteI believe that death definitely gives life meaning. We only have a certain amount of time to live and I think we need to cherish that and maximize how we spend that time.
ReplyDeleteJust think, if you were told that you only had 6 months to a year to live would you live that differently than if you thought you had 30, 40, 50 more years to live?
This is why I believe in "Carpe Diem" - seize the day and live every day to the fullest!
I agree with the comments above. I think that most people would do the same kind of things if there were no death but I think it would take a much longer time to do them. Chelsea makes a good point. If you had a very short time to live, you would not wast a moment. If you lived forever the opposite would happen; you would not place a high value on time and would therefore waste a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteI 100% believe that death gives life meaning. For many people, death is a very frightening thing. For others, they know not when its coming. I believe that death can allow people to realize that time here on Earth is very short - even short for some. Bearing this in mind, I believe that a great many people try to be as happy as possible as well as making loved ones, or even a lover, happy within that time. Chelsea made an excellent quotation that practically sums up my comment: "Carpe Diem." I too, am a strong believer in this and that it is an excellent way to even "combat" thinking about death.
ReplyDeleteSo could it be a good thing to know when you are going to die, as the news could act as a motivator to get stuff done?
DeleteCrazy this blog is up because just the other day my cousin who plays football for TMC went to lexington for a typical party on saturday and had the wake up call of his life. He told me that on the way back home a semi truck cut in front of them and cause them to swerve making the car spin several times and eventually almost flipping over the guard rail. He said one friend told him that he could see his life flash before him in an instant and he told me that he was in so much shock and that thankfully they did not get injured he is so thankful and is counting his blessings.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing that story he told me that he will enjoy life day by day and cherish everything that he does. I too will cherish every second that i am alive and enjoy it with the new and old people that will come in and out of my life and make impacts throughout. Peace & Love
I believe death can give life meaning, but I do not think death is the reason that motivates us to live. If someone was ever on the brink of death and got another chance, I could certainly see how they would feel that death gives life meaning. Being close to death and realizing how precious life is, death can certainly give life meaning in that regard. However, I would not agree with death motivating people to live. I live life to live, meaning I wake up each day and do what I want to without feeling like I have to hurry and accomplish certain things. I like what Dalton said about us subconsciously knowing that we care going to die. Of course we are going to die, but is that a means to sit around and say "I better do this because I could die," absolutely not. My dad always told me, "don't get worked over things that you have no control over." This has stuck with me through the years and is a perfect quote for this scenario. Unless you purposely kill yourself, you do not now when death will come, so why worry about. I have thousands of years to be dead, but only a fraction of time to live. I am certainly not going to waste them thinking about something that I have the rest of my dead time to do, I am going to live.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe death gives life meaning. I think you have to give life its own meaning. Death is death. There is no getting around it. Life, on the other hand, has so many possibilities. The possiblities you choose are what give your life meaning.
ReplyDeleteI believe that death can give life some meaning, but like Jeramie said, I do not believe that it is all the motivation behind living. Without death there is no life, and without life there is no death. We need both to coexist with one another in order for both aspects to have meaning. So in this way I believe that death gives life. I also believe that seeing or witnessing death can encourage someone or motivate someone to start living more than what they were doing already. I think that living can be inspired by others who are living. I think by seeing life, it can be inspirational to others to live. I have always lived with the idea that death is inevitable and the only thing that we have control over is our life.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting question. I understand Andy's argument that if we had no limit on life, we would not value life. Therefore, death is meaningful.
ReplyDeleteBut death is just a time limit on what we can do. Death itself isn't meaninful. It just happens, to you and you and you. Death can always be meaningless--think about murders, or random accidents. The death was meaningless, but the life the individual was living was not. The simple act of living gives us meaning. We may be motivated to accomplish certain things because of our inevitable time limit, but it does not that if death intervenes before we accomplish those tasks that our life is without meaning. What you choose to do with your life, whether you fulfill it or not, gives meaning.
I do believe that death gives life meaning and in contrast to Annie and Jeramie, I do believe that it motivates us to live. Maybe it is not the only factor, and we probably don't think about it often at all, but live until we die. Might as well do that right? Live life in the meantime. Your life can be given meaning by the way you choose to live it, but we all know death is at the end. Even though we may not think about doing something because death is inevitable, we are doing it today because we want to do it (if we die then we can no longer do it, even if we are not directing thinking that).
ReplyDeleteI think that death gives life meaning only when we are faced with death itself. When someone tells you that you only have a certain amount of time left, suddenly everything matters, and life becomes more meaningful in the following days, weeks, years, etc. When you're 21 years old, you do stupid things. We binge drink, eat crappy food, and have no cares other than what is happening this weekend, how am I going to pass this class, and is he really going to break up with me. All the things worried about as a normal 21 year old pertain with the present or the near future. Therefore, I think that this class has opened my eyes into really being aware that death can come at anytime or anyplace. Therefore every day should have meaning and everyday should be lived like it could be the last.
ReplyDeletefrom SHAD
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion death definitely gives meaning to life. If people were to live forever why would they ever do anything worthwhile? They wouldn't, simply because they could do it tomorrow, the next day, or the next and so on. Death encourages to people to accomplish the goals they have established in their life because they never know when their last day is.
Everyone is terminal.... something that stuck out at me during the visit from the nurse and social worker from Hospice. I believe death gives life meaning in the sense of everyone has a goal or dream they want to accomplish before they kick the can so to speak. But in the same sense a person has to want to give lif meaning. It's like the song by Tim Mcgraw "Live like you were dying." To much of the time we dont give life meaning until we have a traumatic event happen to oursleves or someone close to us. Its the action that triggers us to think what am I really doing with my life right now. I think the movie the bucket list opened up peoples eyes. You only have one life to live do what you love and love what you do.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that death gives life meaning. On headstones, the birth year and death year are written. However, what is more important than these dates is the dash inbetween them. I think that what a person does in life is what gives it meaning. Meaning, in life is created by the achievements of a person, not by their death.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when someone dies, people tend to finally reminisce and find meaning in that person's life.
i do not look at death as a motivator. I think you have to find other things in like to motivate you or to keep you going through life. Thinking about death can be depressing and in my opinion can encourage people to do nothing if they are motivated by death. I think that because if you are motivated by death that means your probably fearing it making it seem like youll do everything to make sure you dont die. I think about life and making sure i get the most out of it before its my time so that way i can go in peace knowing there isnt one more thing i would do differently.
ReplyDeleteBy taking this course, it has changed me in some ways, mostly in my work. By working with the demented elderly, it is easy to forget that they are still human. Harsh to say, but it is true. In taking this class it has shown me different aspect and points of view people have on death. What struck me most was the last video that we watched in class. Since I sometimes work with those who cannot talk back to me, it hit home seeing everything through his point of view.
ReplyDeleteAfter this course, it really makes me slow down and enjoy more of my life. It makes me think less about what may happen and what has happened and think more about the present. I definitely think more about the feelings of those who I take care of. While even before the class I thought about the feelings of my residents, after this class this has been heightened. I try and show as much respect that I can for the residents that I look after.
Like Plato's Rule of Opposites says, there can't be one without the other. That being said, I think that death obviously does give life meaning. It's what motivate everything.
ReplyDeleteI think death gives life meaning, but one reason that I think that is because I have never experienced what it would be like to live without end. Perhaps if I was immortal, I would think differently. However, since I am mortal, I think death gives life meaning because it puts a duration on everything. We know that there is an end to what we can do here, so we need to do whatever it is that we want to do before that timer hits zero.
ReplyDeleteI would like to be immortal just to see what it would be like. I am not sure if I would succumb to boredom, or if I would use the chance to learn everything and do everything that is possible. Immortality would give us the chance to literally learn everything. There would be no end to what would could do. If it were possible, mankind could potentially solve many problems that it has today because it wouldn't be able to shift the troubles onto the next generation. Everyone would need to face up to reality. I think about these situations fairly often, and I have come up with various scenarios as to what might happen. That is the optimistic view, but the pessimistic view is that all of mankind would fall into slovenliness. Laziness and sloth would prevail throughout the world leading to a stagnation of all that exists.
I do believe that death gives meaning to our lives. I say this because if there was no death then everybody could take everything for granted and our lives would have no value. I look at life being valuable because it can be lost. Since we know our existence will end someday we can care about how we live to get the most out of them before we die.
ReplyDeleteOk so here's my theory and its a dosey. I dont think death adds meaning to life because it creates an incredibly small window in which your life can have an impact on the universe. If death didn't exsist, creating life would be a even bigger deal for humans than it is now. Imagine a world without death, when you have a baby that will be on the earth for the rest of eternity. It seems like making the descision to have one would be HUGE! I think we would put in a culture where, if you wanted a baby, you would have to fill out an application and pass through several background checks.
ReplyDeleteI do think death is usefull to human socity as a way of cycling old ideals with new ones, and ensuring the human race doesn't stagnate the way chinese socity did in the past once it clung on to Confucian ideals. Just think of how many racists would still be around if plantation owners still walked the earth.