To cope and take comfort from the fact everything is pointless and in 100 years we’ll be dust

[Ramalam]

I have a very stressful job. My coping mechanism is to stop, consider that in the grand scheme of the world everything I’m doing is utterly pointless, and that in 100 years I’ll be dead and none of this will matter one jot?

I used to live opposite a graveyard and it was full of people who had lives full of hopes, fears, ambitious, happiness, sadness. And now none of it matters; it died with them. So best not to
worry.

I don’t know what I’m asking - is this unreasonable or weird?

The only thing that matters is love.

Well, and oxygen.

Completely agree, OP. For a second I wondered if this was a thread title I'd written and forgot about lol.

True…..

🤢

You should read Ecclesiastes: everything is meaningless. It's oddly comforting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastes

Not a person I admire much but he got it right with this poem:

"From quiet homes and first beginning, out to the undiscovered ends, there's nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends".

Hilaire Belloc

Is this specific to your work or just generally? I'm Christian, but even if I was a complete atheist I wouldn't think like that. We all quietly contribute in millions of ways to making the world better or worse, leaving a more or less hopeful future for our children and their children etc etc. I guess I think of myself as a link in a chain - I was largely raised by my grandmother, who loved me and absolutely did her best, enabling me to love my children and do my best by them, and hopefully some or all my children will carry that forward. I don't think anyone honestly thinks that "nothing matters" - ask them how they were parented, listen to the response and then try arguing that the parenting in question didn't matter 😂

Not when you’re dead!

😂

Genuinely, why dunk on this? Its not particularly wrong. We can even objectively measure the negative impact of lacking love, care and interaction - look at the plight of affection / attention-starved babies or the physical affects of loneliness.

I’m similar but instead of thinking about graves and everything turning to dust, I like to look up at the stars and remind myself that in the grand scheme of the whole universe, we are nothing more than teeny tiny ants and whatever we do doesn’t really matter. Sounds depressing but actually find it comforting.

I love the saying* "Americans think life is serious but not hopeless. The English know that life is hopeless but not serious".

*I may have paraphrased it but the sentiment is there ;)

I prefer "today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday and all is well".

Life goes on. The world turns. It matters. You matter. Try to make a difference to someone else's life.

Erm...and sanitation

And...education

Oh and the aqueduct

And...roads

😉😁

Legacy? Are you royalty?

It's a nice thought knowing in 100 years life will be over and done with. The only thing is having to go through death to get there. I honestly wish I hadn't had to bother with life in the first place, but then it wasn't my choice.

this thread makes me think about my ancestors from 100 years ago - would they have imagined that I might exist in 2025 and what my life might be like? My great grandmother was born in the mid 1890s and I remember her well, but what about her mother who must have been born in about 1870, 110 years before me? I wonder what she would have imagined about me. And in turn I wonder what a female descendent of mine (though I only have sons so the female line dies with me!) might be like in 2135? Will she be living in a house like mine? Will her kids be driving her nuts?? Will she have emigrated or found a cure for cancer or…?

Thanks.. I’m you’re age.. and needed that today.. not!

That's only a 'nice thought' if you're seriously depressed and pessimistic.

Nope, YANBU. In fact, I think the same right now. Therapists often ask people who have worries to reflect on the bigger picture: ‘will this matter a month from now? A year from now? In ten years?’ I think you’re doing a version of that!

I get what you're saying op but with that attitude you could justify doing some terrible things.
"It doesn't matter that I murdered 10 people cos in 100 years we'll all be dead anyway!"

I will worry about stuff because I want to enjoy life and not suffer too much because if you're suffering it does matter to you even if it's not for that long in the grand scheme of the infinite universe.

But there are certainly things we don't need to worry about that stressful jobs create.

I'm nothing but a dot now😁

I believe in heaven so it would give me no comfort to think we just turn to dust.

People are confusing concepts in this thread. Understanding that there is no meaning or higher purpose to life is not the same as believing nothing matters. Obviously the things we do have consequences - it's not nihilistic to recognise that in the long run they become inconsequential.