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?

Or Stoicism. I love a bit of stoicism (or a lot).

https://dailystoic.com/memento-mori/

But it'll happen anyway. Are you saying we should all be terrified about the prospect of non-existence for the rest of eternity instead?

I believe we are pretty inconsequential. We have one of billions of stars in our galaxy, which is one of billions of galaxies the universe, I think there then billions of universes in the "multiverse" or what ever its called. The only explanation I can think for why the big band theory makes sense is if that big bang is a small bang in something much bigger, there may be billions of "multi" verses in what ever comes next.

The only thing you can experience is your existence so for you your lifetime may as well be the whole existence of the universe.

I don't think we don't exist, our atoms will change and spread, some of them may be soil for a bit, some may be taken up into trees and become plants. We get intermixed and interspersed in the great circle of life. Our components will last for ever. If you're breathed in cardon dioxide from burning oil you breathing in atoms, and incorporating into your body components that used to be dinosaurs.

Completely true. Whatever the expectations of you, it's all essentially a bit bullshit and nothing materially changes much (at least not in a meaningful timeframe).

But none of that means anything without consciousness? It's just dead matter.

I agree I think we find the idea of time really hard to comprehend. Some of my favourite facts are things like more of the earths history passed between when the stegosaurus and when the T-Rex walked the earth, than has passed between the T-Rex and us. .

I mean yes in a sense we're all just distracting ourselves from death, filling our days with tasks that are ultimately meaningless right? But in another sense everything we do impacts people around us; we have the power to make someone's day a bit better or a bit worse. I always tell myself that every day is new, even if I feel shit today, I won't feel the same tomorrow and the world keeps turning.

Consciousness is just atoms bouncing around in our brains. When I die, and my body breaks down eventually it may be taken up into a plant and turned in to leaf matter, that is eaten by a person and the same atoms will end up bouncing around in someone elses consciousness.

So you're saying the universe knows itself through us.

I don't know what that means...so...probably not

Yeah but you won't know anything about that

I enjoy this kind of fact, too. If a T-Rex looked up at the night sky, it did NOT see the same sky that we see - because the solar system was on the other side of the galaxy! One galactic rotation takes 230 million years, our system's been round it 19 times so far.

I think people go one of two ways: some, like me, find it comforting to know we are tiny, ephemeral parts of something majestically vast. The other lot find it terrifying and need to believe they're ... significant, maybe?

😢

I love the comfort of ‘we matter not’, but I also love the things that link us across hundreds of years. James Ehnes was on the radio the other day talking about playing a Stradivarius made in 1715. That’s awesome, right? Playing a violin in 2025 which was made when Bach was alive. Practically the same as having a coffee and a meat pie with him.

Music is good for the soul so here is James Ehnes on YouTube playing Bach. No idea what violin he is playing.

@Firefly1987 this is for specially for you.

Change jobs. I had a very stressful reasonably well-paid job a couple of years ago. I've now got a job which pays slightly less but is way less stressful and my life has changed massively. I'm home more, not stressed and enjoy life so much more. Money is tight and I'm constantly counting the pennies but my daily life is much happier and I'm a better person and better mom to my kids. Work to live dont live to work.

Do you mean they were around at different times to each other?

Ah, are we back to did the tree fall even if unheard 😂

I didn't know that about the t-rex seeing a different sky!

Right exactly. Make the most of your time here because we’ll all be gone soon. But also in 100 years, your grandchildren will probably still be here to remember you (depending how old you are now I guess!).

It's huge isn't it knowing that death is certain. I think it's like one of those concepts that is 'too big' and (in everyday life) is gaily ignored.

Well I don't agree that everything is pointless. I just try to do my best every day & then I can rest easy at night and pass this on to my kids. I realise it's not that simple for everyone. I often ask myself "what does it matter?" if I feel I'm getting stressed or upset about something. And I find that if it matters to me, then it does matter. But it's not always worth worrying over little trivial things

Yes. Exactly that. My dd told me that too. Kids these days come out with great facts! I certainly didn't when I was that age....

Health?