The key to immortality
What is the key to immortality?
Is it believing in a particular religion? Is it uploading our minds onto a machine? Or is it something else? For those facing a terminal illness, questions of purpose and the afterlife are inevitable.
I recently spoke with a friend who was in this situation. His mind was preoccupied with his life’s purpose and immortality. He viewed death not as something to be feared but embraced as a friend.
But the question that haunted him most was whether it was worth continuing to love and remain in a relationship knowing that his time was limited, or if it was better to end the relationship to mitigate the pain of loss.
His girlfriend knows he only has years to live.
He asked me what he should do.
What would you do if you only had a limited amount of time left to live? Would you spend it with your loved ones, creating memories to last a lifetime? Would you end your relationship with your lover so that they didn’t have to suffer the pain of loss?
To me, to have loved deeply with your whole being will outweigh the pain of loss. Even if time is short, love is worth every minute of it. There is nothing greater than love, not even faith or hope.
I’m not suggesting that there is no pain in loss. There is immense pain in grief. The pain of loss feels like a comet crashing into a planet. But I’d never exchange having loved deeply for a moment of grief-lessness.
We exchanged our immortality to experience this life. Yet it is in love, in the act of dying to ourselves, giving our being away with every act of love, that we are resurrected to immortality.
Love is the key to immortality.
About me
I’m IJ. I’m a martial artist, product designer, and philosopher.
Why am I doing this? To share my learnings on living an action-oriented life. Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter here.
Have a question about this post or interested in working together? Email me at jeitthew @ gmail.com
This would be a very difficult thing to discuss with a friend. As a philosopher, there's an objective answer to be given here, surely. If it is in fact true that human beings are naturally immortal, as I think, then we shouldn't expect an ending. Still, I think we might expect an ending to many things that we like, and that is something to be mourned whether there is an afterlife or not.