thoughts from an eternal perspective, a question.

So this is not meant to be a faith specific question, yet it is couched in "christian/Jewish" terms, as that is what I know.

AN English teacher in high school posed this essay question: what do you want written on your epitaph (or obituary). I have refined it: when I am 80 (or whatever) what do I want to look back on my life and think, what will I wish I did differently? OR from the 'eternal perspective': how much of my activities have been 'chaff' and how much will be gold?

I wonder many things: is there a way to make the rest of my life (whatever there is of it) REALLY count?
What would I trade for that?
I can't take any of this junk with me.
Comfort (which I excel at attaining) doesn't last, is a shadow chased.
Retirement, the 20 or 30 year program: is that just a prevent us from doing something worthwhile for 30 years? (NOT that my career hasn't been rewarding in all ways including some eternal gold)

If radical change garners radical results, Why not? If not now, when?

Till we rest with our fathers, it is never too late.

I'm not looking to argue, but to listen and learn. Totally selfish on my part.
I know a couple here are on this path. I reckon some here are/have considering a like path.
And PM's or group PM's are a fine way to go deeper.

 

I really don't care if I have an obituary or not - actually I prefer not because it is a wast of resources (laugh, but every little bit adds up). Seriously, I have no need of strangers knowing of my achievements or thinking what a good person I was when I'm dead. I plan on being cremated so there will be no headstone (and just throw my ashes in the dumpster for all I care. There is unlikely to be anyone who would - shudder - want to put my ashes in an urn so no epitaph. Since I don't care for a funeral or service or "celebration of life", there is no need to announce to the world my passing.

I try not to leave a negative mark on the world by trying to do the right thing without any fanfare. Since I'm an introvert, that means doing public deeds just ain't happening, but I do help where possible in private settings. I try not to hurt other people and mostly I just live my life without imposing on others.

 

that's right you can't take anything with you and the most valuable thing in life is experience and memories.
Chasing that material item is a way to enslave you.

 

What do you think, is this IT and we're nothing more than a temporary flicker of consciousness in a meat suit for 80 years, existing in a universe that exploded into being at random, and endlessly rushes nowhere, deeper into the void of time and space?
Or do we exist in a reality that was created intentionally by an architect obscured from view, and that the real self is eternal, that this existence is only transitional and ultimately leads to another (hopefully better) place?
Or more terrifying yet, is it all a simulation and we're living in a dream world where the fabric of reality isn't material in nature, but made up of endless bits of information constantly materializing as our consciousness collapses the quantum wave function before our eyes?
I think no matter what you believe, it's probably a good idea to make the most of whatever time we have here. Not necessarily strive to build empires, leave a legacy or acquire material things, but just be a decent human being. Be kind to people. Try to leave this world a slightly better place than what it was when we came into it. Ultimately enough time will pass to where nobody will ever know we were here.
Here's a philosophical question ~ is existence real if there's no conscious observer around to experience it?

 

Deep Thoughts, by Eric Wanderweg. (Jack Handey)

 

Is that like; if a tree falls in the woods and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound?

 

I don’t worry about what’ll end up in my obituary or on my headstone. I won’t be around to defend myself or feel shame at that point anyway The question about regrets over things I’ve done or things I wish I did when I had the chance is a big one though. You can only put off certain things for so long before the curtain falls. Going through the motions and planning for things to do when you’re older may or may not pan out. It’s important to do things along the way in case “someday” never comes. Without a crystal ball, it’s hard to determine what we should be doing in the here and now so that we’re not haunted by regrets later in life. Looking back, I know that if I had gotten or done everything I wanted to do earlier in life, things would’ve turned out a lot worse. Sometimes the setbacks turn out to be blessings, no matter how painful they were to go through at the time. It’s been my observation that no matter how far off the path we find ourselves, eventually things seem to come out in a wash. I like to turn to the short version of the serenity prayer fairly regularly. The concept of accepting what we cannot change, having the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference is something believers and skeptics alike should be able to get behind.

 

I think the epitaph/obituary bit was just the seed for the thought. I changed it, to reflect that I'm not really, at all, concerned by what others think, as much as what gets done now that will be of lasting value.

And that will be even sweeter if my name is NOT attached to any of it. While I want to get things done, I thrive in obscurity.

I build monuments: someone will get this house one day, wood piles are another one.

 

Why You ever chose me
Has always been a mystery
All my life I've been told I belong
At the end of the line
With all the other not-quites
With all the never-get-it-rights
But it turns out they're the ones You were looking for
All this time
'Cause I'm just a nobody
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody
Who saved my soul
Ever since You rescued me
You gave my heart a song to sing
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
Moses had stage fright
When David brought a rock to a sword fight
You picked twelve outsiders nobody would have chosen
And You changed the world
Well the moral of the story is
Everybody's got a purpose
So when I hear that devil start talking to me saying
"Who do you think you are?"
I say
I'm just a nobody
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody
Who saved my soul
Ever since You rescued me
You gave my heart a song to sing
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
So let me go down, down, down in history
As another blood-bought faithful member of a family
And if they all forget my name, well that's fine with me
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
So let me go down, down, down in history (Goin' down in history)
As another blood-bought faithful member of a family
(That's all I ever wanna be)
And if they all forget my name, well that's fine with me
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
'Cause I'm just a nobody
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody
Who saved my soul
(Gonna save, gonna save my soul)
Ever since You rescued me
You gave my heart a song to sing
(You gave me a song to sing)
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
(Nobody but You, Lord)
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
I'm living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus

 

Kinda like the " if a tree falls in the woods, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?".

Yep. It still does.

 

orriginally Kirk Franklin?
always liked that song.

 

But sound is just waves of energy. It takes the ear of a human or animal to translate those waves into an audible noise which is processed in the brain. In the absence of a creature with an ear, or better yet, a conscious observer, we’re left with a very strange situation with deeper philosophical implications than what our first thoughts might me.

 

100% I was just going to be a smartass and ask, "Are you sure it makes a noise?"

 

It’s a question that the longer you think about it, the less sure you become of the answer. Not all that different from asking if the chicken or the egg came first.

 

Right! They're fun. Can get you really thinking. All theories though. Same with how the earth was created.

 

The chi

Thats an easy one.....the chicken came first, it had to sit on the egg in order for it to hatch.

 

Reptiles lay eggs and don't sit on them. So, maybe the chicken's ancestors didn't sit on eggs and some sort of mutation occurred that brought about the desire to lay on the eggs instead of burying them in warm sand. In that case, the egg would have come first.

If the chicken was a cress-breed (like a mule) as opposed to a mutation, then the chicken would have come first.

Or maybe they were developed in a lab and brought by aliens just to give future humans a headache going round and round on this topic

 

The way I heard that one is: "If a Man makes a statement in the woods where his Wife is not around to hear it, is he still wrong"?

 

I am not right in the head.. my brother will throw some of my ashes in our septic tank. I been dealing with chit most of my life and I want to be familiar conditions.

Other than that extra time and energy goes into kids; mine and others they need all knowledge and skills we can give them!

some ashes under a sugar maple sapling
Some in a flower garden and
some in Bondi beach in Australia..

The stuff will go to those in need..

 

I got that on t shirt