<story><title>John Gray: &apos;What can we learn from cats? Don&apos;t live in an imagined future&apos;</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/25/john-gray-what-can-we-learn-from-cats-dont-live-in-an-imagined-future</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>BLKNSLVR</author><text>Live life for its own sake.  The gift of life is life itself.  What&amp;#x27;s the alternative?&lt;p&gt;Twice in my life I&amp;#x27;ve grasped the concept of death, and it made my heart race with an exhilarating feeling of suffocating claustrophobic for two reasons:&lt;p&gt;1. It&amp;#x27;s coming for me one day&lt;p&gt;2. Not just the lack of agency in the universe, but the lack of even the realisation of the lack of agency.  All of this (wide sweeping hand gesture acknowledging &amp;quot;everything&amp;quot;) is not just out of my hands but out of my awareness.  Because I no longer exist.  I no longer exist.&lt;p&gt;Life is preferable to the alternative because it&amp;#x27;s at least something.  A chance to experience.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fendy3002</author><text>In buddhism there is the four noble truths, a teaching about living life and facing death.&lt;p&gt;In short, what many people afraid in death (or in life generally) is the fear of losing, either losing their possession, losing their loved ones or how those loved ones will feel when losing you, losing your ability to do your job, etc.&lt;p&gt;In the teaching, if someone is able to overcome that fear (suffering &amp;#x2F; dissatisfaction), he &amp;#x2F; she can accept death as a cycle of living and live more relaxed life.</text></comment>
<story><title>John Gray: &apos;What can we learn from cats? Don&apos;t live in an imagined future&apos;</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/25/john-gray-what-can-we-learn-from-cats-dont-live-in-an-imagined-future</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>BLKNSLVR</author><text>Live life for its own sake.  The gift of life is life itself.  What&amp;#x27;s the alternative?&lt;p&gt;Twice in my life I&amp;#x27;ve grasped the concept of death, and it made my heart race with an exhilarating feeling of suffocating claustrophobic for two reasons:&lt;p&gt;1. It&amp;#x27;s coming for me one day&lt;p&gt;2. Not just the lack of agency in the universe, but the lack of even the realisation of the lack of agency.  All of this (wide sweeping hand gesture acknowledging &amp;quot;everything&amp;quot;) is not just out of my hands but out of my awareness.  Because I no longer exist.  I no longer exist.&lt;p&gt;Life is preferable to the alternative because it&amp;#x27;s at least something.  A chance to experience.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>koboll</author><text>This is bitterly true but also profoundly, maddeningly, horrifically sad.&lt;p&gt;Death is monstrous. We can do better. We have to do better. And it&amp;#x27;s tragic that we probably will but everyone alive today will probably miss that chance by a sliver. We happened to be born 99% of the way from the beginning of humankind to the end of death, but we just barely missed it.</text></comment>