"What I have come to realize in the passing of my grandmother from Alzheimer's disease is that there is a level of artificiality in how we live and what kind of meaning exists to live a few functionless years longer. In more cases than not, the elderly are kept alive through immense medical-technological crutches, not that these individuals have significant contribution to the human system, but more so a psychological one: to keep their children in denial a little bit longer of the inevitable: death. As if the elderly were merely pieces of living jewerly who would keep their children's memories still projected onto them and in one piece, rather than dispersed, muttled, and buried in the ground and the scattered in the sky of their own minds.
In the end it does not really matter how long we live. Whether you live 30 years or 70 years or 100 years or only 10, if you found a way to wake up every single day with a sense of purpose and passion and curiosity and productivity--whether these mechanisms of living have been worked out subliminally or consciously--and in the end of every single day you have someone meaningful to share your experiences with, and in the happiness of mental and physical exhaustion, you have found a way to sleep in peace, feeling okay with yourself...
... and that every single day of your life, you have lived with meaning and fulfillment derived from your self and surroundings...
And though the 'future' is an arbitrary vision of any particular human mind, you have come to exist in a paradoxical state such that you live for the day to create a new tomorrow, yet you live for the day as if it were your last."
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THREE QUOTES!
"The Paradox of Thoughtful Hedonism": Live for today to create a new tomorrow, but live today as if it were your last.
From Toastmasters: It's not how many years you live, but HOW you live your years. Quality over quantity.
From famous UCSF Biologist Astronaut: Your dreams are good predictions of your future.
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