The Great Existential Crisis

Everything is going great, you're in good health and you are having a wonderful time with friends. All is well. In the back of your mind, however, creeps this weight of knowing it will all be over at some point. In this moment, you wonder a bit if anything is worth doing and exploring. After all, it's all going to end any way. How, just how, can you possibly forget this and continue to enjoy yourself and let go of those thoughts?

It's a bit of a crushing weight, like that of the expanse of the universe.

You are simply a spec of sand on the beach. Beneath many and equal to a few.

Now what? The ramble is over and perhaps the whole point is seeking words of motivation to just let go and live. If you have those words, feel free to share them as I'd love to gather very helpful perspectives.

 

I find that realizing how totally insignificant I am is pretty freeing. The universe doesn’t care about me, and it’s up to me to make this life what I want it. I’m grateful for the opportunity and desire to make the absolute most of it while I can.

It will end, but I won’t care, because I won’t be here to be sad about it. It does no good to worry about the end, it’s coming no matter what. So, may as well just get on with living and making the most of the time.

 

Constructive and wonderful input like this is what I'll go back and look at repeatedly when times get tough. Thanks bud

 

Glad to help anytime. Everyone struggles from time to time, and having the guts to ask is a big win.

 

What we think we are is usually wrong or misleading. We are more than that and less than that. Sounds like you are ready for some next level meditation / self examination. Nothing is or will crush you. I'm old and just figuring this out.

 

Keep in mind your 'legacy', what's left of you when your time is up. Could be this afternoon, could be 50 years out.

It has 0 to do with financial, social, fame or any other commonly accepted by the world 'status'.

It has everything to do with positive impacts you have on the lives of others, regardless of where you connect with them.

Sometimes a smile and a word of encouragement or wisdom is all they need.

 

Learn to live like your dog.
If you can't play with it or eat it, then piss on it and walk away.

My father gave me some words of wisdom.
"Son, Don't worry. If you can change it, then no worry. If you can't change it, then no worry. One is in your control, the other is not."

 

My life derailed at the age of 53. I was in good physical shape but injuries made me change my life completely. I am now 74 and Thank God everyday for another chance to enjoy the simple things in life, they really are the best. I have always been a dog person, after every canine friend I swear it will be the last canine as it is so difficult to lose them. It has been two years since I lost my last friend and my chronic pain has basically kept me in a chair, since I realize better than most if you stop doing things physically you lose that ability to do that function. I was not getting out of my chair due to back pain and bad knees.
My wife talked me into getting a puppy so now I must force myself to work with her a minimum of 1 and 1/2 hours per day. She is a joy and we have had her a week. I will not allow myself to shirk my duty to this pup and it is difficult. I thank God for the opportunity and also for the strength and patience to train this lab.
I am a loner, after my accident I would force myself to go fossil hunting for 5 months every summer, I would camp where I hunted and a dog was extremely important to me because my hearing is extremely poor so the dog would be my ears for me when boon dock camping. I formed a habit of getting up every morning before sunrise and watching the sunrise, it became a habit and unintentionally it was a strong meditation. I became very intune with nature and also my intuition.
I guess what I have learned is no matter how bad things are you don’t have to look far to see someone fighting a tougher personal battle and we should be thankful for what we have.
My new best friend Nellie.

 

Thank you, everyone, for the input and uplift

 

Perspective needs re-jiggered.

Out of 8 billion people on the planet, we're less than a spec. How many of those folks are in your universe?

Throwing myself out there as an example, my universe is small. Close but small family (but we're still family in every sense - bad included). Fewer friends than most, but they're true. A few dozen truly good acquaintances. A few hundred general folks that know who I am/co-workers.

So, out of 8 billion folks, I'm on a few hundred's radar. Of those, I sincerely matter to half (being generous - I can do nihilism too).

That's my audience, that's who takes priority to me. That's plenty. That's a full life.

YMMV

Wish You All the Best.

 

The Emperor of Ice-Cream
BY WALLACE STEVENS
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

 

This was the Summer of free ice cream where I work. I’ve come to the conclusion that IF by chance I go to Hell and the Devil grants me one wish… don’t ask for ice cream

 

My son has a Pale Blue Dot image as his desktop background. My take: it Is all about the journey, not the destination. Enjoy the ride (in your Taco)

From Wikipedia entry on PBD; PBD image below apparently is a NASA image, so hope no copyright issues here.

In his 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan comments on what he sees as the greater significance of the photograph, writing:

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

— Carl Sagan

 

If you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth

- Peter Tosh

 

Couple things:

The mere fact that your life will one day end is what I believe gives the time you do have such significance, and meaning, and value. It’s a perspective from which to treasure what you have.

Others have said it, but I’ll say it again. What gives life the most meaning isn’t really what you have, but what you contribute. Life is a very small and lonely existence when focused on accumulating things for oneself.

Existential crises are opportunities to reevaluate what really matters in your life, and shed the unimportant things.

 

Kerry Livgren (Kansas) had everything the world could offer when he penned this...

 

I really enjoy the long replies. I also enjoy the philosophical thoughts this brings on.

 

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/...-of-the-dying-and-what-we-can-learn-from-them