May 13, 2010
Immortality
Kids (naturally) and adults (neurotically) worry about death.  One recent caller's 12 year old son fretted about death a lot.  He worried that because he is the youngest, all the people who matter to him will die before him and leave him alone.As a bit of an aside, all vampire movies have at least one scene in which the vampire, an immortal, laments that he's had to lose every wife he's had, because they've aged and died, while he remained the same:  the emotional pain is horrible.  Many a vampire character has rued not being able to grow old and die with his beloved.What do these two issues have in common?  Simple.  Immortality cheapens the value and promise of life.  With "all the time in the world," there are no imperatives, no goals, no sense that every minute is important and should not be wasted.  People tend to procrastinate like crazy when they're given protracted time to complete something.  One of the most important aspects of life is that it is not infinite.Since we all have "x" amount of time to live (75 years on the average, without accidents or fatal illnesses), knowing that gives us the incentive to make the most out of each day.Children need to be reassured, but need more to learn how to "value" life, how to make "purpose," and not "fear" their focal point, and to enjoy those they love each and every day.

Posted by Staff at 1:04 AM