Unearthing a life.....

.... This Guy!

I wouldn't have to be worrying about whether I do or do not have lung cancer. On the down side, I likely wouldn't have been able to 'feel' the hugs I got from 'noapologies' yesterday. The yin and the yang of mortality / immortality.

I've never wished for immortality. Always seemed like there might be a number of very unpleasant traps lying in wait in that direction. The concept of immortals seems to be, at first glance, that of unaging adult forms who lie about in bedsheets and eat grapes. The standard historical depictions are of middle-aged to elderly bearded gods, their somewhat younger wives, and considerably younger lovers, with a few robust youths thrown in here and there. And all this age difference leads me to suspect that though immortals live forever, they must also be aging. That they eventually begin to look old. Like a hundred year-old person multiplied by ten times the wrinkles and shrinkage. History says that the immortals fell out of favor with man and that man turned to more vaporous gods. But the possibility remains that the immortals got so old and shriveled that the mortals couldn't find them any more; the possibility that they may still be living, but have shriveled to the size of raisins .... who would want that?

From another viewpoint, if you have an entity that is going to live forever into the future, you need to balance the equation by understanding that such an entity would also have to have lived forever into the past. There's not a great deal of appeal to that prospect.

I think I'll just go on being mortal and not waste my daydreams on silly ideas. Mortals get loving hugs. Mortals get pans of lasagne. Mortals get to watch TV and read books and stare at the ocean waves. Mortals get "I love you Dad" calls from their children and a mountain of love from their wives.

I doubt that immortals get any of that fine stuff.