Thursday, November 15, 2012

Death and all of his friends

Hmm. I just realized that quite a few of my posts are related to death (or dying). I don't mean to be doom-and-gloomy. Seriously I don't. I hope when people read through my posts they realize I'm trying to encourage people to live their lives to the fullest, or help someone else do so. Why? Because (as I mentioned in an older post) - only one thing is truly guaranteed in life: death. So if you've got a limited amount of time - do something worth talking about. If not, at least do something fun. So on your death bed you can say "damn, what a ride". So that life was worth it in the face of all the suffering, obstacles, and annoying people you had to deal with.

Today's post is based off a video posted by the class of 2015 at Penn med. It'll likely bring tears to your eyes:

My Last Days: Meet Christopher Aiff





This is a great, well made video, but what I wanted to highlight were the Christopher Aliff's words at the end:

"When we devote our energy and time to trivial matters and choose to stress over things that are ultimately insignificant, from that point we perpetuate our own sadness and we lose sight of the things that really make us happy. And rationalize our way out of doing really amazing things."

I don't presume to know anything about Christopher, but it seems the general population doesn't seem to think about things like this till the end of their life. As the (14th) Dali Lama once said (paraphrased):
"Man [...] sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present [...] he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived"

It saddens me greatly, but this is very true.

So what's my take home point? Besides being doom-and-gloomy?

"Dying doesn’t need to be a bad thing – it is in fact a necessary thing. I want to be remembered as someone who did their best." - Christopher Aliff.

I intend to do my best, and be able to say "Damn. What a ride" when it's my time. But, for now, I'll be nursing my R knee's patellofemoral pain syndrome (the most commonly diagnosed knee pain! And you thought I was going to do a post without any medical context whatsoever..) while practicing my dance routine(s). 

All in the spirit of procrastinating homework assignments for school.