It's not a good thing death is it? Like has been said, the best you can hope for is a painless transition after a reasonable number of years. I agree that 70-80 is a bit of a let down, a couple of hundred would really give you a sense of the human race progressing (or not perhaps). I wonder how an average age of 200 would effect your outlook on life and how you treat others.
I know one thing, I don't feel at ease (rightly or wrongly) with the topic when my children are around. There's that blissful period of eternal sunshine filled childhood days playing in the garden when death is simply not relevant. I really don't like to push them forward to the day when you completely accept your mortality.
My 11 year old is quite blase about it but only because it probably still resides in the part of the brain that deals with 'things that happen to other people'. He's smart enough though so I'm sure we'll have the conversation soon enough. Neither of my kids have taken a fancy to any gods or afterlife myths yet so they both face that jarring reality at some point in the future. It makes me sadder to reconcile myself with the fact that my children will face death than it does to face death myself to be honest.
I know one thing, I don't feel at ease (rightly or wrongly) with the topic when my children are around. There's that blissful period of eternal sunshine filled childhood days playing in the garden when death is simply not relevant. I really don't like to push them forward to the day when you completely accept your mortality.
My 11 year old is quite blase about it but only because it probably still resides in the part of the brain that deals with 'things that happen to other people'. He's smart enough though so I'm sure we'll have the conversation soon enough. Neither of my kids have taken a fancy to any gods or afterlife myths yet so they both face that jarring reality at some point in the future. It makes me sadder to reconcile myself with the fact that my children will face death than it does to face death myself to be honest.
