PunkofNice, even if there is no life after death everything we do matters because the consequences of what we do today will ripple forth into eternity. If I hurt somebody and they carry that with them for the rest of their life, they will most likely take out their pain on others who will start the cycle anew ad infinitum. This is what Buddha meant when he said that there is the deed, but no doer; we die, but our deed (our karma) lives on for eternity, life after life. But, if I resist the urge to take out my pain on others then that bad karma ends with me and the future will be a little better than the past. BTW, our sun will not go nova for a few billion years yet, plenty of time for humans to get off the planet and find a new sun.
Giordana, that quote from 'The True Believer' really hit home; I see a lot of myself in it. I read that book years ago, but I guess I better read it again. There is definitely an inner fanatic, an imperious puritan in me that sees all pleasure as trivial at best and not worth indulging in. It doesn't help that most of things that normal people take pleasure in (drugs, music, sex, shopping) do little or nothing for me. Maybe I need to learn to enjoy myself in whatever way I can.
As if reality were responding to my last comment about women, I saw a cute girl today with a black bob who was neither overweight or, apparently, a tweaker.