Processing our mortality

[LadyForCamus]

Maybe you could volunteer in some capacity with the dying. Want to come hold my hand in twenty years or so?

I actually worked as a clinical dietitian at a nursing home for two years after earning my license, so I've had exposure to it. I worked with a lot of hospice/palliative care patients during my time there and I've witnessed people actively dying, but I don't feel that that has eased my discomfort at all, because I was very good at compartmentalizing those experiences as a way of protecting myself.

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If it's any consolations, we'll all get a kind of resurrection when the zombie apocalypse happens, anyway.

Dude, my husband is READY for the zombie apocalypse. He says the mall is where you need to be for the greatest chance of survival, but I think he's watched too many movies. Everyone knows they eventually heard you to roof. Come ON. Amateurs.

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It seems meaningless to point out that we have an impact. Yes, our children, should we have any, will remember us. And perhaps grandchildren or even great grandchildren. And then what? Eventually, the ripples that you make are so small and far away....and really, really eventually, in the longest run, this planet will be eaten by the sun, perhaps humans will never get off it. Then what is the point?

Exactly this. And I always feel silly taking it out that far in my mind, because it's something so completely abstract and out of our control, but I can't help it.

At the same time, there isn't anything you can do about it. The only answer I've come up with after years of this struggle is that if it doesn't matter, then the meaninglessness is also meaningless, if you catch my drift. We exist NOW, and may as well have as good existence as we can, and help others do the same.

You're right. What's the only alternative? Suicide? That goes against the grain of our very DNA. Camus talked about making that philosophical choice between life and death in the face of the absurd, but I think it's less philosophical than we believe, and even less of a choice. The drive to continue living is biological.

The mental struggle with this nihilistic idea is never ending for me.

Don't take this the wrong way, but your suffering comforts me, lol. I just mean I feel sometimes that I'm the only one who struggles with this. It's just nice to know I'm not alone. Are we maladjusted? Or is it just that certain personality types have an inherently more difficult time managing the anxiety? Would we die first in the wild? [emoji14]

you ever need to talk to someone about your feelings about meaninglessness, please feel free to PM me. ~hugs~

Thank you so much for the outreach, and for opening up here. I may just do that. Perhaps talking through it with someone who is in the same place mentally can help us both.

*hugs*

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You're born
You die
They mourn
Goodbye

My epitaph, right here, lol.