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?

I think this is a good perspective in a way BUT I have episodes of depression and the thought that everything is empty/meaningless etc. tends to trigger me to feel complete apathy and fall into a dark place!

Yes, we'll all be dead in 100 years and all our worries long gone but being loving/kind/experiencing the fullness of life whilst we're here etc still matters!

Why when you've only got one life, would you choose to spend most of it locked up in prison.
All those horrible creatures out there at the moment that are banged up forever, what's the point, it's no life. I would rather be dead.
Life is for living and enjoying. Not point living in a prison.

I just go with 'realism' myself.

Memento mori is a very old philosophical concept. It certainly calms me down in times of stress, and it makes me more appreciative of what and who I do have, right now. I often go and give my kids a spontaneous hug at that point (which they just live being 14 and 17 yr old boys 🤣).

or as it’s written in the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff classic… 100 years from now, all new people!

A profound observation!

If we are all going to be dust, doesn't that mean there should be more hoovering rather than less?

And yet come Monday morning we'll get up and do it all again ☹️

Good point.
Good job I put a new bag in Henry the other day.

I find the temporary nature of life reassuring. Who wants to live forever? The way the world is going, I'll be absolutely fine about my time being up. I won't be remembered by many people but I've done my best and had some interesting and painful experiences. These days I try to live in the moment and appreciate the small things. I hope to bow out gracefully.

True. I didn't have kids (for many reasons) but one of them was the fact that you leave them behind on this planet and I find that so tragic. You never get to find out what will happen to them, how the rest of their life will go. And that's how it's "supposed" to be. I just find life so incredibly tragic. I couldn't have kids and then leave them alone on this planet and just forget about them.

It’s a scary thought leaving children in this world after we’ve gone, even if they are grown up

You're looking at it from the point of view of a younger person, though, with the idea of your kids being young and still needing caring for, or looking after financially. By the time you pop off you'll hopefully be so old and frail that your adult children will be elderly themselves and they will be the ones doing the worrying, and caring for YOU.

There's an about-turn when you have elderly parents. Roles are reversed. And if your adult children are doing ok in life by the time you're on your death bed you'll probably just mark them off as a tick in the "sorted" box right at the end, as you'll be so focussed on yourself and getting through what must be the totally traumatic thought that your light is about to go out and there's not a thing you can do about it.

What a cheery thought for a Saturday night! 😏

Actually thinking about it, it's probably more any grandchildren that woudl be the people you'd miss knowing how their life panned out. When they go off to university, meet first serious girlfriends/boyfriends, go into their careers. My dad never got to see that and that's sad. He would have been proud.

Even as an adult, when your second parent dies you feel orphaned. It's an awful feeling.

🙁 I couldn’t imagine how it feels