Life is so fucking short

[Architect]

Midlife sucks.

Thanks for listening.

 

[snafupants]

What particularly sucks about your midlife?

 

[Architect]

Nothing. I've got family, great job, money, health. Everything a person could reasonably want.

A salient feature of midlife - I've found by consulting with others - is that it doesn't matter how rich and famous you are, it still sucks. You younger folks have something to look forward to.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

You younger folks have something to look forward to.

I doubt that.

 

[Proletar]

I'm considered young, and my life sucks as well. I can honestly say that I don't know a lot about the midlife experience, but I can confirm, from a non-nostalgic perspective, that being young sucks as well.

 

[Polaris]

So Architect....if you were younger again, what is it that you would be looking forward to? How young would you want to be if you could choose? Would you do anything differently? Why isn't there anything to look forward to now? Why, whywhywhywhywhywhy......just curious.....

(I'm 41, btw)

 

[Architect]

So Architect....if you were younger again, what is it that you would be looking forward to? How young would you want to be if you could choose? Would you do anything differently? Why isn't there anything to look forward to now? Why, whywhywhywhywhywhy......just curious.....

(I'm 41, btw)

Oh my adoring fans, they want so much from me ...

if you were younger again, what is it that you would be looking forward to?

I'd be more relaxed about my future, because I would know that with time on your side, if you're just a little bit careful, things will go your way. So I'm saying I didn't realize the power of time when I was younger.

How young would you want to be if you could choose?

Teenager I suppose

Would you do anything differently?

Several ways to attack that. Certainly I would do it differently, because I'd be my older mind in my younger body. From the sense of how I would fix mistakes I had made, there aren't a lot. I'd probably do a better job of keeping up with friends and relatives. To make it easier on myself I would't be so single minded when I started something (so would have taken more science classes in HS so it wouldn't be so difficult taking it up later). Relatively minor stuff.

Why isn't there anything to look forward to now?

I didn't say that. I've got the best to look forward to, except the one problem that unless the Singularity comes along there's a grave site at the end of it.

Why, whywhywhywhywhywhy

Indeed.

 

[Melkor]

*Pours Architect a whisky*

Kid. Its time I introduced you to my good friend Jack.

 

[Cognisant]

I didn't say that. I've got the best to look forward to, except the one problem that unless the Singularity comes along there's a grave site at the end of it.

If you don't die in the next twenty years I think you'll be okay, just remember to put down "atheist" on each census and leave instructions to have your brain frozen, the archeologists will want resurrect you so they can reconstruct the past from your memories.

Although it may be a while before your memories become valuable enough to warrant the procedure, don't expect to be back too soon, you may be on ice for half a century or more.

 

[ophelia]

I feel like it's quite long.

 

[Lot]

I'm only 24 and I can't go a day without feeling physical pain. My body always hurts! I can only imagine how shitty it'll be when I'm 40. Is it normal to be in pain all the time in your mid 20's?

 

[snafupants]

Yet the species flourishes in full bloom! Almost appears as though life's doomed yet clueless ambassadors unwittingly receive the fuzzy end of the lollipop. Existence basically needs to stink because that alone incentivizes sex, which propagates this silly carnival for another four generations. Nature sure does seem to be less niggardly with the feel good chemicals when the women is pregnant; and isn't it curious that women forgo the travail of menstruation when they become pregnant? Almost like negative reinforcement. And why do people degenerate and perish, as if on cue, when they're no longer fertile? Isn't life grand?

 

[Jennywocky]

I'm only 24 and I can't go a day without feeling physical pain. My body always hurts! I can only imagine how shitty it'll be when I'm 40. Is it normal to be in pain all the time in your mid 20's?

what are you doing, banging your head repeatedly in a car door?


... there is a slight increase in pain in doing things as you get older, although it accumulates... I noticed it in my early 30's, I think. But you get used to it, and also (like the doctor's cure that was essentially, "That hurts? Well, stop doing that!") you learn when to expect some residual pain and change what you do and how you do it. IOW, you get smarter to compensate for getting older.

Funny how some things that never used to hurt, suddenly you wake up the next day and wonder what you did to yourself.

Right now as I'm tying, I realize my hands are slightly stiff and my right pinky actually hurts a bit. But you also learn to block pain out, especially if you get used to it.

 

[pjoa09]

shit like this makes me nervous.

i waste wayyy too much time.

I think I am wasting it right now.

 

[HDINTP]

Yes I will die once but if you commit suicide then you just were not "strong" enough to deal with that...

 

[snafupants]

Yes I will die once but if you commit suicide then you just were not "strong" enough to deal with that...

Even that sentiment is culturally informed (e.g., seppuku or Stoical attitudes toward suicide) and grounded in learned, often beguiled, metaphysics and Will and self-preservation, which all amounts to silly emotions which circumscribe the human experience. There isn't any innate value in persevering through cancer or extreme psychic pain; simply adjudicate the matter and opt to live or die. That simple. The world and human enterprise will continue in either case; solipsists are idiots.

 

[HDINTP]

Even that sentiment is culturally informed (e.g., seppuku or Stoical attitudes toward suicide) and grounded in learned, often beguiled, metaphysics and Will and self-preservation, which all amounts to silly emotions which circumscribe the human experience. There isn't any innate value in persevering through cancer or extreme psychic pain; simply adjudicate the matter and opt to live or die. That simple. The world and human enterprise will continue in either case; solipsists are idiots.

I agree.

 

[SpaceYeti]

When I'm at the middle of a good book, I don't get upset that I'm going to finish the book. Yes, being mid-life sucks, being young sucks, being old sucks. Life sucks. Deal with it and move on. Take the suck in stride, move on to the good.

 

[SLushhYYY]

Of course life is short, its so short that it means absolutely nothing in terms of time and space. This earth has been around for 4.5 billion years! 60-100 years is a mere heart beat of the universe.

Imagine if our earth had a conscious, after spinning around for billions of years, it still doesnt know when its "mid-life" will be...so away it goes, spinning.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Fuck

 

[Coolydudey]

Got a serious problem with that?

 

[Jennywocky]

Of course life is short, its so short that it means absolutely nothing in terms of time and space. This earth has been around for 4.5 billion years! 60-100 years is a mere heart beat of the universe.

Imagine if our earth had a conscious, after spinning around for billions of years, it still doesnt know when its "mid-life" will be...so away it goes, spinning.

Maybe the Earth died a long time ago and is still spinning due to inertia, while we frolic about like bacteria on a corpse, unaware that the world is slowly disintegrating under our feet and we've been living on borrowed time.

 

[noksve]

I like the idea of us being like bacteria. Is like we were a very contagious disease and we are all working on spreading it. Or spreading ourselves. Whatever.

 

[SpaceYeti]

Nope, the Earth isn't rotting. Made of metal and stone. It's good.

 

[Jennywocky]

Nope, the Earth isn't rotting. Made of metal and stone. It's good.

Oh yeah. A rock is just a rock. I forgot.

 

[SLushhYYY]

I like the idea of us being like bacteria. Is like we were a very contagious disease and we are all working on spreading it. Or spreading ourselves. Whatever.

It makes logical sense to me. Picture being in an airplane 30,000 feet in the sky. You cant even see humans, cars look like ants. We are microorganisms in comparison to earth, and in comparison to the universe we are effectively proportional to the size of a "string" within all matter.

 

[gedanken]

is the longest thing you will do in your life

 

[catatonic]

everything in this world is impermanence....

 

[SLushhYYY]

everything in this world is impermanence....

Then explain the origins of the universe

 

[catatonic]

yusss so true.

today we are happy but tomorrow we might be sad.
today we are rich but tomorrow we might be poor.
today we have lovers but tomorrow we might be forever alone.
today we are healthy but tomorrow we might be sick.

yadda yadda blah blah

 

[HDINTP]

yusss so true.

today we are happy but tomorrow we might be sad.
today we are rich but tomorrow we might be poor.
today we have lovers but tomorrow we might be forever alone.
today we are healthy but tomorrow we might be sick.

yadda yadda blah blah

That could mean that today I am sick but tomorrow I might be healthy... great.

 

[HDINTP]

And so I keep on living. Can I say that it is "my stupidity" hoping for something?

 

[catatonic]

we can always hope for the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

 

[HDINTP]

we can always hope for the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

ahh. And I was the one who used word "hope" first in my first post intended to you Am I "an Idiot"...?

 

[Da Blob]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson's_stages_of_psychosocial_development

Yes, Life is short so, IMO, it is rather important to become cognitively mature by the end of it, for one could be stuck at whatever level one is at death, for the rest of eternity, with no further opportunity for growth towards one's potential as a conscious entity.

I think Erikson's model is useful, if not accurate. That is to say, life is full of identity crises, for it seems as though just as one has a good idea to the answers to the questions "Who am I?" and "What am I?' something changes and those previously satisfactory answers fade into inadequacy.

Referring to Erikson's model, midlife and the identity crisis associated with it, Generation versus Stagnation, can be thought of as "Keep growing or one will begin to rot" scenario. There is bound to be a Sci-Fi analogy to this crisis but none comes to mind.

It is a frightening prospect to realize that one is past one's prime, especially as each year passes more quickly than the one before it and each day forcing one to approach that suddenly visible Last Day of life.

One can only hope that on a day prior to that Last Day, one has achieved integrity and maturity, for the alternative, childish despair, offers little in the way of hope or comfort in confronting the grave.

 

[BigApplePi]

Midlife sucks.

Wait a minute. That is two topics.
(1)Life is so fucking short
I wish somebody'd told me that. Now how am I going to finish this?
(2)Midlife sucks.
What's so special about midlife?

Here is one solution, but if you get stuck along the way, one has to elaborate.

Always, always have goals. There are two kinds.
(1) Those you are inclined to make yourself.
These are better as you can favor the most desirable
(2) Those that happen to you.
These are the lesser as now you have to wiggle.

Mistake. There are three kinds.
(1) Long term. These take some kind of experience in making.
(2) Intermediate term.
(3) Short term. These give you motive for everyday actions in living. You are direct these either for themselves or for (2) above.

I wrote a paper on this in some email, but my email got erased. If I'm asked, sometimes I make copies, so I could look for it. It has more detail on how we bring these goals about and what they are ... I think.

 

[catatonic]

ahh. And I was the one who used word "hope" first in my first post intended to you Am I "an Idiot"...?

That's relative.

 

[HDINTP]

That's relative.

 

[snafupants]

Maybe the Earth died a long time ago and is still spinning due to inertia, while we frolic about like bacteria on a corpse, unaware that the world is slowly disintegrating under our feet and we've been living on borrowed time.

Abandon ship!

 

[doncarlzone]

Nothing. I've got family, great job, money, health. Everything a person could reasonably want.

A salient feature of midlife - I've found by consulting with others - is that it doesn't matter how rich and famous you are, it still sucks. You younger folks have something to look forward to.

Argh! I always thought that once I got a family, great job, money and health that I would be happy every day!

We are unfortunately biologically programmed to have unfulfilled lives - with the exception of celebrities of course.

 

[TriflinThomas]

I doubt that.

We get to look forward to global warming and possible economic collapse

 

[Sanctum]

I think you feel like you've reached a plateau in which you feel you have nothing to look forward to, I believe no matter what age there's always something to look forward to and if not create it, learn something new get a new hobby, don't live in the norm I know personally I hate repetition especially in school and thats when I think school sucks.

 

[Sanctum]

Argh! I always thought that once I got a family, great job, money and health that I would be happy every day!

We are unfortunately biologically programmed to have unfulfilled lives - with the exception of celebrities of course.

Oh celebrities are the most unhappy people on this earth trust me. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

 

[doncarlzone]

Oh celebrities are the most unhappy people on this earth trust me. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Sarcasm can be tough over the internet sometimes

 

[Da Blob]

Sarcasm can be tough over the internet sometimes

Really?

( it just a matter of having the right Smilie... lol)

I went to school with a lot of a lot of "Rich Kids", many were quite miserable, already having that which everyone else was trying to acquire. They thought that there was something really wrong with their own selves for their high status, which made them the targets of envy and attempted manipulation, really did not make them "Happy".

I just told them that it was just the idiots of the world that envied another's life, instead of learning to love the life that God had given them to experience.

 

[Namesmith]

It's shorter than you reali

 

[RedN]

I once had a midlife crisis... it ended up in a divorce

 

[Bucca]

I agree. I had a "beginning-life" crisis when I was 10. I realized how one day I will be extremely old, the majority of adults I know will be dead, I will be one day taking my last breath, I might as well be 80 now, I am 80 now etc etc. Then I couldn't look at people without imagining how they will go on and die and no one will care or know. That we are walking corpses waiting to happen. All I did at home was cry and watch TV. Fun life.

 

[Architect]

Flash update: I'm feeling better.

 

[BigApplePi]

If it doesn't last, please report back here for further instructions.