Accepting my own mortality

tooktheredpill

I don’t know about you, but this is one of the most difficult issues of being a JW (at least for me). As we were living on a “spiritual paradise” (totally unreal), we used to believe everything the GB said without questions. I was not going to get old, or go to High school, or go to college… or get married… and the "Big A" was going to finish the "wicked system"™ ... and them we were going to have a paradise Earth forever...

Reality struck me in the face when I learned the truth about “the Truth”™. And is really depressing sometimes, when I realize that I’m going to die…

I’m just venting here…

What are your thoughts?

BurnTheShips

Hi Took.

Maybe I just had a different perspective, but it never felt to me that the end was just around the corner. I never really saw myself in paradise or fantasized about it and when I was young I never thought about death. Other brothers would talk like the end was next year, or within 5 years, and I nodded an assent, but deep down I guess it never registered. I guess I did not live with "el ojo fijado en el premio".

I had cancer when I was 20, and the shock of the experience at that young age made me face the possibility of death. I was diagnosed with lymphoma the same day Jackie Kennedy died of the same thing! I actually thought I was going to die too (weird date for me, I was baptized and married on 5/19 as well). It was scary. But faith helped me a great deal.

Over the ensuing years, I have come to grips with my mortality. I firmly believe there is something better. I am not scared to die. I just want to live long enough to finish my business here in the world (which will take quite a few years yet fortunately).

It will take some time for you to come to grips with the fact that one day you will die. Don't be afraid.

Burn

serotonin_wraith

I see it from the other side. I always thought I was going to die at armageddon, so when I found out it was false, I realized I could have another 70/80 years to play with, instead of just a few months or years. We're lucky to have anything considering the number of potential humans who could be born but aren't. You could have been a mayfly and got 3 days of existence.

Thoughts should be less about wanting extra after this incredible life, and mre about appreciating what you were lucky enough to have in the first place.

As far as being dead goes, if it's non existence I have no fear of that. It didn't bother me before I came into this world.

BurnTheShips

Sero: "The glass is half full".

Life is a gift as you point out. The only thing we posess is the present instant. The past is gone, the future is not yet and cannot be beheld with certainty.

Carpe Diem.

wanderlustguy

Reality struck me in the face when I learned the truth about “the Truth”™. And is really depressing sometimes, when I realize that I’m going to die…

You were always going to die...you just didn't know it. The difference is, now you have a chance to really live first!!!

Slide into the grave with a smile on your face.

Lo-ru-hamah

That has been one of the hardest things to deal with. Not so much my death but the death of loved ones. When I am dead the pain is over but due to the JW teachings, I have never had to learn how to deal with death. At least in other religions you learn to accept death. JW's teach that your loved ones will never die. Well, they lied and that has been a source of great sadness for me. I understand your pain TTRP.

However, like Burn the Ships, I want to believe that there is something else after here. So, I do. Not that I don't appreciate this life. It is beautiful but because it is beautiful, I don't want it to end.

Sheri

Seeker4

If midlife is when you begin to discern and (hopefully) accept your own mortality, I got a double whammy of it, because it was at the same time that I came to realize that the Witnesses did not have "the truth" and that I most certainly WOULD grow old in this system and die.

Yeah, that was a bummer, but it also moved me to stop putting off all the things that I was waiting for the New System to do. I quit my cleaning business and got a night job for three years while I established myself in the career I'd always wanted - writing. I got a pilot's license. I seriously started listening to music again. I went to concerts. I made tons of new friends in the art, music and writing world. I completely stopped attending meetings. It wasn't all great - I also had a few affairs, and eventually my marriage ended, but I've come to accept what all that was as well and have made the very best of it.

I find the Buddhist/Taoist acceptance of death as a part of life the most helpful, and I've tried to learn to live without fear of death. I view the overriding religious view that there is "something better" beyond this life as just a result of our fear of death and our ability to comprehend, to a degree, non-existence, which scares the shit out of us. We've created this myth of something better after death to soothe our fear of the unknown. This life and the mystery of it is enough for me. I wish there were more, but see the afterlife as simply a self-delusion.

Learning to live in this day, this hour, and making it the best that it can be, I consider much more satisfying and important than an imaginary heaven or hell.

S4

worldtraveller

We've created this myth of something better after death to soothe our fear of the unknown.

While that for the most part is true, the reality is about controlling the masses. It's about power.

Living in fear makes one more prone to accepting all sorts of beliefs. Like the Witnesses. Give them this story about eternal life and voila! Instant followers. Problem is that the GB knows no more than anyone else about what happens after one perishes. It's all about money. Seems to be that way in most faiths doesn't it? In reality though, there is always doubt-even in Witnesses.

I had this very discussion with my JW associate in Dec. I told him I have accepted my mortality.He said he found it hard to accept that I was comfortable in my existence. I said that may be due to the need to keep everyone (including him) in the "fear" zone.The end is inevidable in all of us. So why waste your entire life dwelling on what you can do nothing about?

Living in fear is a complete waste of your life. It is counter productive. Accept it and move on. The alternative is your demise.

Mastodon

What WLG said. No need to say anymore...

Accepting my own mortality

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