If awareness somehow continues to exist in some form after death, what do you think you’d miss most about this life?
Me? I would miss just being here, experiencing nature.
I grew up on the concrete streets of a sprawling city. Now I live in the mountains. I could never go back.
Trees, mountains, flowers, critters, sunsets, snow, lightning, the beach – the natural world is at once indescribably beautiful, immensely destructive and so ridiculously improbable it bogles the mind. Just the notion of a brain and body capable of self-healing and living for decades is hard to wrap your head around.
I wonder if it’s even possible to envision a world more perfectly constructed. Sure, terrible things happen every day. The animal world can be unspeakably brutal. Not to mention earthquakes, wildfires, tornados and hurricanes. But that’s nature. That’s how things work. Utopia is an imaginary construct of man, not a real thing.
The most surprising thing I don’t think I would miss? Being me. We talk about how hard it is to live with the same person for years and years. What about spending decades living inside your own head? I don’t care how many times or ways you reinvent yourself; that’s a long time to put up with someone, even if it is me.
No, I won’t miss being me. And I can’t say I’ll miss the constructs of man, enjoyable as they are. Once the body starts to deteriorate, there’s only so much food and drink you can enjoy. Work and sport are fulfilling and exciting, but exhausting. Even music and movies get old after a while. Friends and family? They move on too.
Yes, it’s this place I’ll miss the most. Just being here.
Image credit Jason Corneveaux via Flickr