We never know we go, when we are going
We jest and shut the door;
Fate following behind us bolts it,
And we accost no more.
People always tell you to “live in the moment” or “cherish every day” and other glass-half-full such phrases of optimism. Because even though we all assume that we’ll live life until we’re old, it’s not hard to turn on the news, read social media, or other sources talk about how a child died in a car accident, a person killed another person, or entire groups of people murdered in cold blood for something as intangible as money or power. Death is unique in that it is the ultimate equalizer, that no matter who you are, you will leave this mortal plane someday. Sure, we’ve constructed ways with which to pass that artificial reality on to the next person, but it will never buy immortality or permanence in this realm. Life, as it were, is the most real rogue-like gaming experience.
But what do we constitute as being the benchmark for making every day count? For, living life to the fullest?
Because frankly, just doing what I do day-in and day-out is enough for me to be happy with life. Sure, I’d like to be making a million bucks, be able to travel everywhere and see everything, have fancy things, be fed grapes by a women in Japanese maid outfits, and drive my wife and I around in fancy topless cars, but that’s just icing on the cake. The cake that is life is already delicious and moist, and full of goodness and flavor. Maybe the optimism is less about action and more about experience. Maybe when people are telling you that you should live life to the fullest, they really mean live life like they do. After all, we are creatures of attention and ego, and what better than to console one over the finality of mortality than to remind them of their own fate, a fate shared of us all.
No, for me, I believe the people who pass, if they could, would tell you to just keep living, however the hell you want to. Someone else doesn’t agree? Fuck em. We may never know the meaning of life or the purpose of our existence in this universe, but that doesn’t mean we simply hide until the end, or follow another’s design. If we knew where we were going, we would not need things like time or space. We’d simply exist within the confines of a limitless universe. Sounds exotic, but boring.
Unpredictability, after all, is why we keep going.