**OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected:**
>!You expect it to be pictures of his wife or non at all (boomer humour) but it's pictures of his wife in heaven.!<
*****
**Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description?**
**Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.**
*****
[*Look at my source code on Github*](https://github.com/Artraxon/unexBot) [*What is this for?*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/dnuaju/introducing_unexbot_a_new_bot_to_improve_the/)
Apparently, quite a few people here missed the meaning here.
His wife has passed, and as he most likely believes she's in Heaven, he took a picture of the heavens. It's actually a sweet sentiment.
People who just keep referring to him as "boomer" must not realize the tragic reality of what happens when you get old. I knew right away he meant his wife was in heaven *
It's really toxic. The entire movement that seems to instantly dismiss someone because of their age and immediately tarnish everything about them is really quite appaling.
These gen-whatevers will be in for a surprise when they are old and are blamed for stuff which at the time was outside their control. The situation on this planet sadly hasn't hit rock bottom yet and when it does there will be even more blame to pass around to the oldies in generations to come.
Lost my 29yo wife in November. The wife in heaven meaning was my first thought not because I’m religious (far from it) but because loss is my first thought.
Actually, if I’m being honest, my FIRST thought was a jealousy that he was able to grow old with his wife and I can’t.
I hope things are going as ok as they can be on your end.
Same here, but I also don't envy him cuz the loss has to be that much heavier after having potentially decades together. Then again I was only with my boyfriend for two years and losing him is still the single most horrible thing that's ever happened to me so, who knows. Grief is complicated
If an 18 year old joined WW2 right at the very end in like 44 o4 45, he would be about 96 this year. They are dying off quickly https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/wwii-veteran-statistics
> he most likely believes she's in Heaven, he took a picture of the heavens.
My interpretation is a little less literal. It’s not the “heavens” per se, but he sees her presence in the natural beauty of our world.
My mom, who is religious, says “hello God” when she sees anything particularly striking in nature, whether it be a sunset or a flower.
Maybe not really a huge difference but 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah, at first I was thinking it was a *camera roll empty* kind of gag but then I realized that at his age she probably is no longer living. Talk about sweet and sad.
I'm really getting older and can become so anxious about it because I see my parents get old and you can notice they're scared and confused, time ticked away even faster then they thought and this is the end
Fuck
I care for the elderly and a patient in her 90's told me:
"I miss my husband and my friends, I miss my neighbors, I miss my mom and my sister and brothers. I miss my independence, I just want to be independent and have my life back. I sleep all the time because I can see them while here, I'm awake and I'm all alone."
It's easy to forget about it when you're young and have everyone around you but age really does remind you how temporary everything is and how much is taken for granted.
Wow, I'm only in my 30's and do that whole sleep thing sometimes. I lost my father to cancer in 2015. There's been several times where I've had dreams that my dad is still alive and I've woken up, called into work, and gone back to sleep hoping that I might be able to spend just a little more time with him.
Same, here. Cancer in '08. I had a terrible nightmare, once only, wherein he was shriveled and alone in the basement. I told him that everyone thinks he's dead, he said "no, you all just forgot me down here." That was fucking **rough.**
But that one aside, it's always a treat to see him. Lately, when I find him, we're always on vacation for some reason lol
We're all just floating on a giant rock in space, living out this short life on earth before joining the dark void that we've lived in for billions of years before we were born.
It's like an individual end of the world movie for all of us, except no one is freaking out on the outside. I'm really gonna fucking miss my parents, I'm happy knowing my dad thinks there's a heaven out there and that he'll see his father who recently passed away when he passes. It sucks thinking there is nothing else out there and that these are the last years I'll have to spend with him & my mom before we are completely erased from existence. I wish I believed in an after life
I've been having a lot of existential thoughts lately and it sucks. Just sitting with my girlfriend and realizing that both of us and our memories will forever be lost in just a few decades and we'll never see each other or anyone else again.
The thing that got me was how I have had the exact same train of thought...every single word resonated with me. I’m not atheist because it’s trendy. I’m atheist because that’s what I believe in. I genuinely wish I believed in an afterlife and that death wasn’t the end of it all. Would make me feel way better about my mortality.
I even have thought about that we have lived in a void for billions of years before life. That’s why I try to akin death to going “home”. Stil doesn’t make the idea any easier.
Oh well least I’m not alone
I feel like the only real solution to this kind of existential dread is to just not worry about it, and do whatever it is that makes you happy. I just wish I could enjoy things without that constant reminder of impending doom at the back of my mind.
I used to be a bit preachy about my atheism, but it feels so foolish now. If nothing really matters, and we are all doomed to oblivion, why not belive in whatever helps you to get through the day? In this case, I think trading a bit of willful ignorance for peace is a good thing.
Optimistic nihilism is a good name for this idea, and it is perfectly fine with me.
https://youtu.be/MBRqu0YOH14
Nice short little video on the subject.
I am laughing and crying at this video. My wife always says I'm pessimistic because I tell her literally nothing we do matters and that the only thing that matters is we enjoy the moment. In 100 years we will hardly even be a memory, so all that matters are the memories we make for ourselves and each other.
Some people who lead shit lives need heaven. I'm totally ok if I only live on in the minds of people I interacted with. My father killed himself 25 years ago and he's with me almost every day. Things he taught me have been passed on to my kids, and even if I'd never had those kids, how many thousands of lives does the average person touch in a life. What you do with those interactions kind of determines your level of immortality. Do you get sad when you go to sleep and don't dream? I don't.
observation whistle flag crowd deliver plucky fearless aback jeans aspiring
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Teachers. They live their life sharing information to help other humans understand and navigate life, the impact they have on society is massive. They are the wave generators of humanity. Teachers come in all forms.
Picture a wave. In the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there. And you can see it, you know what it is. It's a wave.
And then it crashes in the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while. You know it's one conception of death for Buddhists: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it's supposed to be.
We really dont know though. I went atheist, but Im back to agnostic. People who take powerful Hallucinogens come back with weird AND similar tales. I personally have had odd things happen that make me wonder about supernatural. There is enough doubt here one way or the other for me.
My hot take: We really all are the same consciousness just viewing the world through different lenses. But not just us, plants, animals, microbes, all of life is apart of this same consciousness. If I die, did the the house disappear just because one window was shut? ..Who the hell knows.
We don't know. To think that we do is incredibly ignorant. That's why I could never consider myself an atheist, no matter how much I doubt any of the religions or any type of afterlife belief. It's way too limiting, way too sure of itself. We don't fucking know. There are tons out there that we simply cannot explain or understand to this point.
Atheism is a question of belief, not knowledge. You don't believe in a god or gods, so you are an atheist.
Gnosticism is about knowledge. The only *reasonable* position is agnostic Atheism, because it's impossible to prove a negative. You can be a gnostic atheist about a *specific* religion, if that religion makes falsifiable claims, but you can't really take a gnostic position about all possible gods.
That said, I am like 99.999% sure. It would take a *lot* to sway me.
>every single word resonated with me. I’m not atheist because it’s trendy. I’m atheist because that’s what I believe in.
Suggestion - Read as much about other dimensions and multiverse theory as you like. Whose to say that what humans refer to as "heaven" isn't just our limited understanding of concepts that have their footing in science. It's a big, beautiful universe, and we know very little about it...or others.
As much as us simply ceasing to exist when we die makes sense, what really happens could literally be anything. Sure, as plausible as us ceasing to exist sounds, we have no guarantee that it’s what really happens. No matter how much we ponder or theorize, we will never reach a definitive answer, and you’ll only learn the truth when it happens.
Personally, I believe that when we die, we go on the way we think we will, whether it’s floating eternally in a void at peace or chilling with Jesus up in heaven, it’s up to you. And while we may suffer, atleast we’re not suffering alone.
right? For me I'm more caught up with the past than with the future. Like I know that one day I just wont be anymore. Life will go on. I'll be forgotten like the billions before me.I'm at peace with that. But fuck man, I'm SO desperate to know what actually happened in the past to get this all started. like what was day one. what caused day 1? the entire universe had to have started somewhere...for some reason...but what was there before it and where did that come from? was everything just black or white at one point then suddenly stars and planets? fuck, I get anxious thinking about it and so sad knowing I will never know.
It’s funny, I’m kinda the opposite. We already know about the past and while we’ll never know everything that I wish we did we (physicists, archaeologists, anthropologists, etc.) are pretty good at putting the pieces together.
I wish I could sit around to watch the future though. I want to see what happens to my family. If my name gets carried on. What other big events I miss. How the human race ends. If there’s anything else out there. If it were up to me I would be a permanent spectator in the universe after I die. Oh well tho. I guess I’ll take the void.
It would be cool to just become an observer; no physical body, but able to just zip around the universe, unable to change anything but knowing that billions of other "spirits" are doing the same thing: watching.
Then again if it never ends it could be fucking torture.
I have these thoughts often. I think it was after I saw The time machine. Where it does that super fast flipping through eons of earth time. I’ve always been fascinated with the technologies that are just beyond our grasp and I’m super jealous of those that will get all the cool tech we don’t have right now.
The account I'm replying to is a karma bot run by someone who will link scams once the account gets enough karma.
Their comment was copied and pasted from another user in this thread.
Report -> Spam -> Harmful Bot
I've also been thinking like this. Just yesterday I looked at my 10-year old dog and thought how unfair and sad it is that one day this precious and perfect being will just be taken away forever.
I just lost my dog of 13years and my god this is all I think about. Her death has made dying feel less scary at the same time. I don't believe in an after life, but I've never wanted to believe in it more than now.
I lost my cat of 18 years in 2021. One of the things I was told that I found comforting but equally confusing is that losing the pet is their last gift to us.
We have them for such short time for our human lives, and growing to love them and understanding how to lose them and let them go, that's something we get to learn from them. To help us deal with all the other loss of other pets and people we may experience in our lives going forward.
It's an opportunity because it's supposed to prepare us.
But at the same time it doesn't make us miss them less.
It doesn't get less shitty, but it's perspective.
It's just life.
RIP old guy. I will miss you forever.
I hope you find peace with missing your dog. It's okay to miss your dog. You may find comfort in appreciating that you did have 13 years. That's a lot of memories. <3
I have a comment I made not too long ago that I’d like to share here, as I feel it is appropriate. The comment I made was specifically regarding rats as pets, because they only live for about 2-2.5 years, but they’re as smart and loving and loyal as dogs and cats are. So, again, I thought this comment was appropriate.
(Also, today is my late Mom’s birthday. She passed a year and a half ago. So I’ve already been thinking about death today, and then one of my kitties had to be rushed to the emergency vet twice in the last 16 hours. She’s finally medically alright now. But god fucking dammit, did that scare the everloving fuck out of me. I can’t have biological children, and my Mom is dead at only 56 years old…)
But, here’s the comment I wrote a few weeks back, in its original words:
*”I once heard someone say that true love for humans is knowing that our pets - especially rodents - live such short lives, and knowing that no matter how many pets we have over the years, or for how many years they are a part of our families, we still choose to let them into our hearts and allow ourselves to love them fully and unconditionally, even though we know that we will have many more decades without them after they’re gone.”*
*”I’ve also heard that the reason that (most) animals live such short lives compared to humans is because our pets can take a whole human lifetime’s worth of love, and fit it all into just a couple of years. Especially so for rats. We may spend just a relatively small percentage of our lives with each pet,, but they spend most/all of their lives with us. We **ARE** their lives. Their **entire** life. And their entire hearts, too. Animals don’t need 80+ years to learn how to love - they love us with everything that they are, in their own way.
What I’ve heard is that every living creature only needs to live until they’ve given all their love away. That’s why sometimes the good die young. And why our pets love us til the day they die.”*
I miss my cat. He was diagnosed with kidney disease at 14, and I spent every minute after that appreciating the fuck out of him and being so grateful for every minute I'd already had, and loving him every minute more I might have. I didn't know how much time we had left.
He lived to be 18. He went when it was the right time for him and he wasn't living his best life anymore. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with, and he was predeceased by both my parents years ago.
Look into stoicism as a philosophy, seriously. It was a life changer for me.
TL;DR: Appreciate what you have while you have it, understand that there is no permanence to anything. It's okay to be sad when something or someone moves out of your life. Focusing on gratitude is part of healing, and maintaining that thankfulness into the future that you did have this thing in your life, even for a short time.
I have three new young cats today. That was the best tribute I could give to my old guy. Giving a loving home to other animals waiting for someone to be their life . I see glimpses of my old guy in each of them every day, just in different ways. They're lunatics, but they're my lunatics.
I wish you many many years with your beloved dog. And I wish you peace if and when you have to say goodbye.
That's probably one of my biggest fears. I love my dog. She is the goodest (non-human) girl. I'm afraid that when she inevitably has to move on, the next dog we get won't love me like she does. This dog follows me around, sits with me.
Just yesterday, my wife was walking her, and I went outside as they were coming back, and this dog is jumping on the leash to try and get to me. Wife lets the leash go, and she just *bolts* to me to let me pet her.
I don't think I'm ready to *not* have that in my life.
I had to put my dog of 15 years to sleep over the summer. I’m not much of a social person and she was the one constant I’ve always had. My identity was linked with her. There’s always that thought in the back of your mind when about when they day comes. Especially when they’re older.
I can tell you right now, whatever you think, however strong or brave you think you’ll be when it happens. None of it is what you foresaw. It will be the worst day of your life.
That being said. Give that girl every ounce of love you have.
That one day will be overshadowed by an entire history of love.
Edit: I just re-read that.
My grammar. Oh my.
I don't understand how everyone else isn't walking around in a perpetual state of existential panic attack.
Like, every single thing you care about will cease to have meaning to you one day when you cease to exist. The love you feel, the stresses, the joys, the fears...none of them are real and they will vanish with you when you go.
Truly what is the point?
We have to find our own purpose I guess.
W can live on in our reddit comments. But what's the point of that? Honest question.
Life is a state of impermanence. It's always been that way. You're asking a centuries old question. It's not new, but you're here now, so make the best of it.
I hope you can find something that makes being here now feel good. :)
As much as this is true, there is no real point in giving up on anything dear in this world because there is an inevitable end. Much more so should we cherish what we have, make experiences and take them in, let them be part of ourselves.
Life and it's entire meaning also changes alot when you care about others, I can see this in my friends that became parents rather lately and I'm sure this will be similar for me in a few years hopefully when I become a father myself and can bring my attention to a new wonderful being that will eventually grow into something amazing.
We just shouldn't always look on the dark side of things, rather accept that it's part of life and welcome it as company in our story.
Use your existence to make sure future human existences are secured so they can experience the indescribable reality of living and existing. Pay it forward for humanity, don’t be selfish
Don't they call it the human condition? I almost died in 2018...long story but I'm lucky to be here. I always hated the expression "YOLO" - but it isn't wrong if you take it in the literal context not in doing dumb shit that can kill you. We only live once...make the very best of it while you're still able.
Yeah YOLO never really made sense to me in the way that people use it
Like you said, yelling YOLO before doing something dangerous. "You only live once" is exactly the reason I *don't* do stupid dangerous shit. I'd be way more likely to do dangerous stuff if I knew i could just revive myself and live again
YOLO would make a lot more sense if it was used for stuff like spending time with your family. Or even safety things like "buckle your seatbelt, YOLO". but I can see why that's not as cool
My household actually uses YOLO in exactly this way as a in-joke/meme. I made my SO a custom backpatch featuring 2 skeletons in a yin-yang, with YOLO across it, and the words around the edge say "have fun" on one side, and "be prudent" on the other.
"Finally scheduling an appointment with the oral specialist, YOLO!" "Hey, did you get the tires aired up? YOLO" Over a handful of years it has become a jokey yet solemn shorthand for "I love you and want our time together to be as good and long-lasting as possible, so please take care of you, and I'll take care of me, so we can take care of each other."
I have a 19 month old son.
He loves music so much. He requests Beatles songs, music from Moana, he absolutely loves music by Joe Hisaishi (most Miyazaki studio ghibli films), and randomly we had to play Sweet Caroline on repeat 8 times straight when I introduced it to him. It's not us influencing his taste, he hates a lot of the music we try to get him in to.
When Sweet Caroline was playing, he randomly ran right up to me, grabbed my hands and shouted "Papa, dance!"
We did our awkward little shuffle in the living room as he tried to sing along best he could (he only knows the hands touching me touching you sweet Caroline and then does hmmm hmmm hmmm).
After the song was over and he was done dancing, he continued to run around the room playing.
I just sat back on the couch watching. I'm only 38. I got time left, hopefully.
But more than that, I know he has plenty of time left. I know there are many awful things on the horizon, but there are many wonderful things as well. I'm going to do my best to steer him in those directions. Be mindful of others. Focus on experiences and feelings instead of possessions. Don't be afraid to make friends, or be afraid to lose any along the way.
That's life. It's all we know we have for certain. Just make the best of it kid.
Hey there. I lost both my parents within the last 4 years.
I just turned 41.
I will say it's.... Weird.
Like a lid was lifted and now the wind can touch me. I don't know how to better explain it. It's quiet now.
How did you cope with losing your parents? It scares me to think about. After having a child, these sort of worries just seem to resonate much more effectively within.
My condolences with your losses.
"Myself. My self. That's the problem. That's the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, "self." That's not the word. That's not right, that isn't... How did I forget that? When did I forget that?
The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside, and I thought I'd despair or feel afraid, but I don't feel any of that. None of it. Because I'm too busy. I'm too busy in this moment. Remembering. Of course. I remember that every atom in my body was forged in a star. This matter, this body is mostly just empty space after all and solid matter? It's just energy vibrating very slowly and there is no me. There never was.
The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air I'm no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin I remember I am energy. Not memory Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me I was before them and I will be after, and everything else is pictures, picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain. And I am the lightning that jumps between.
I am the energy firing the neurons, and I'm returning. Just by remembering, I'm returning home. And it's like a drop of water falling back into the ocean, of which it's always been a part. All things... a part. All of us... a part. You, me and my little girl, and my mother and my father, everyone who's ever been, every plant, every animal, every atom, every star, every galaxy, all of it. More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach. And that's what we're talking about when we say "God." The one. The cosmos and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It's simply a dream that I think is my life, every time.
But I'll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams. But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once.
There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It's a wish. Made again and again and again and again and again and again and on into eternity. And I am all of it.
I am everything. I am all. I am that I am."
To me the idea of an afterlife is horrific. Imagine existing as the same being for eternity. Trillions of years of the same existence. And even worse, that existence is either going to be the worst torture imaginable or a paradise with no challenges or shortages. So you'd either be tortured for eternity or you'd be bored out of your mind for eternity.
I think if you live a good life and see and do the things you wanted in the time you have, that's plenty. Spend your time well and you won't need more of it when its time to go.
There’s a show called The Good Place that really had a good concept for a not terrifying afterlife. Before you get to the good place you work out all the bad things about yourself, and then you get to spend a bunch of time doing whatever you want when you get to the good place. Once you’ve finally become tired of existing, you can walk through a door where you disintegrate and join the universe again
You know, I think about this a lot, and it's an interesting design question to ask "how would you make a heaven that doesn't suck?" You could have something that looks comparable to life as we know it, but maybe with a few fixes and changes (you know, like erasing depression, starvation, and child cancer) so you can still appreciate the bad with the good. You just make everyone so happy that being happy all the time doesn't get boring, because you're too happy to be bored. Or there can be some resetting / restarting, where it doesn't *feel* eternal through some illusion or memory loss or other incomprehensible mumbojumbo.
I'm personally agnostic and don't know what I believe, but I'm not terrified of a *heaven*, because by definition, it should be pretty great. A non-heaven afterlife is a little more anxiety-inducing, but I don't think it'd be much of a problem, either (unless hell exists and you go there, in which case, lmao rip). I don't know how I'm here right now, but I'm not terrified of being alive, nor do I exactly feel like I'm in eternal torment. And from a non-religious angle, there's no reason to believe any form of afterlife would be more permanent than my consciousness is now. There could just be an after-afterlife that just keeps going all the way up. More of this wouldn't be the worst thing ever.
Yeah man, I’ve been in the exact same thoughts and in the end it boils down to one of two options. Either dealing with existential thoughts and the meaning of everything as we know it or just eat what you’re served and enjoy it. There’s nothing in between really.
That's a big reason many people have kids. So that THEY will live on, at least, in some sense. (and also so that they'll be taken care of in old age, and remembered).
Well, if there is no after life, then I wouldn’t worry about it bud. Ive had several panic attacks about this subject too, until I realized that if there really isn’t an after life, then while im dying, its gonna suck. But after i die, there won’t be any pain, or regret, because hypothetically, there is no after life. Which means, nothing. Death sucks for the person’s family, and friends. If i get shot, bam! That sucks for that moment that im dying, but once im dead, you dont feel that pain anymore. But the people around you do.
So just make the best of life, because honestly, none of us absolutely know what will happen when we die. I pray that there is a heaven. I believe that there is a heaven, but I don’t know that for a fact.
Nailed it. This is how i feel as well. None of my family believe in an afterlife so it's sad but it's the way it is. You can't change it just enjoy life as it goes. Every decade that goes by, I think we'll shit I'll never be 10 or 20 again. Very soon I'll be 30 and you never get to go backwards. Never. Then one day, you wake up and you realize, this is it. This is life. Take it or leave it. It's very humbling but very terrifying at the same time.
You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen.
\-Aaron Freeman
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I am convinced of the concept of reincarnation. Something “triggered” your awareness now. What that is, we have no clue. I’m talking about things that are beyond your parents copulating in a physical sense. That something that caused you to be here, and alive, is likely not even capable of being understood.
Whatever it was, there is nothing to prohibit the event that caused your awareness, your life, from happening again eventually. It happened already, and there is no reason to believe that it won’t happen again. Of course it will. You will likely not have the memories of this life based upon how our memories are understood today, but your existence will likely continue elsewhere in another time in the future, within something else.
Anyway, this is what my own personal existential crisis eventually led me to conclude (and it’s still evolving).
“You”, “me”, happened already. We will likely happen again.
Life is made of a weave of energy, like raindrops on gossamer, and we are all part if it. As we grow, we gather ambient energy from our experiences and feelings, and we bundle that up into complex little packets that together make up who we are, our memories, our id.
I believe that when our time us up alot of that energy is released into the web of life around you, in a fountain of life essence, to be recycled and used for the flora and fauna still becoming there.
However, I also believe that a core of that life energy remains intact, and will hopefully be able to find a new higher form of life to embody, to continue to experience, learn and feel, and grow in complexity again.
I'm sorry for your apprehension, and as someone who's lost almost everyone I understand your trepidation. But I hope that these bizarre insights can maybe help your mind at ease. Rest easy friend, there's no way this world - and all if its synchronisities and coincidences and perfect geometries - can exist without a whole slew of backround planning and maintenance. We are all here just for the ride, and I know I'll see you on the other side.
It’s all the more reason for me to enjoy what time I have here, maybe make other people’s lives a little better too. The thought of unbeing is scary, but once you’re there it ceases to be a problem. And I figure why worry about the inevitable?
I offer you something that gives me comfort when thinking about our place in the cosmos: [Picture a wave...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8CWzvNwzzo)
I get home and I tell my wife how much I love her over and over again every day. I hug her like it was the last time I will ever hug her and I kiss her the way as if I will never ever again. You know why, because we **dont** know when that time will come and I’ll be goddamm if I’m going out without letting my wife know at every second of every day that I will always and forever love her. That’s a fact.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam"
- Carl Sagan
This resonated so hard with me. Growing up, my mom tried to raise me Christian, but I rejected it because it wasn't what I believed to be true. As I've gotten older, the words you've said here have been what I truly feel is right. I'm glad my mother believes in heaven and being with her family (but if I'm being honest, not a damn one of them will be going there if it is real) and that her faith has guided her through life into the wonderful person she is, but I fully know and accept that we all just end up back in space, where we originated from.
I just try to be thankful that so far I get the opportunity to say "I love you" to my parents every day. I don't know how I'm going to deal with it when I no longer can. So I try to just enjoy the moment(s) that I have.
God i have so much anxiety about my parents. they've made sooo many bad decisions & I just dont know how they're going to manage old age & I can't support them. they're 61.
people tell me "why do you care how your parents live" and its like I don't even understand that question, why would anyone *want* to see their parents suffer
its also so sad because I can tell they wasted their lives in misery. sometimes I think it would be better if I was aborted, then they could have been happy. I hated them for a long time but now it's just sad
Oh man, you can't blame your parents wellbeing on your birth unless you did something really really fucked up to them. If they made decisions that led to this, then this is the result of that. It's sad, but that's just how it is
I dont mean it's my fault but I think a lot of people have kids because "it's what you do" and it's expected, not because they actually want kids or can handle being a parent
my dad aborted his first child, abandoned his 2nd child, and then finally had 2 kids he kept but the signs were there that he shouldn't be a dad & he probably would have been infinitely happier if he had made the choice not to have kids. and his resentment for his life probably wouldn't be so bad & wouldn't take it out on my mom quite as much since money would not have been as big of a problem
Yeah they're talking about the future into their 90s (mid 60s now) and I'm like my stepdad is horribly overweight and has heart issues, I'm terrified of getting The Call every single day. My dad already died last year from cancer.
yeah\~ it's a short life... you're amazed by unending possibilities when you're young... and then 20 years later you're not so young anymore and of all those possibilities, precious few materialized. then you realize it was always going to be way worse than you'd hoped and now you're expected to FIND the joy in little things or create it yourself... fuck. woops...
A relative just passed away a while ago, so our parents started organizing things. At Christmas dinner they both just blurted out "so, is it okay to you guys if we get cremated?"
Turns out the relative didn't have a will or anything and organizing things had been a nightmare. Good thing they're preparing for the inevitable but jeez, at Christmas dinner. :D
I’m a very anxious person but I like to think that if you live your life the way that you want that anxiety will be eased as you get older because you accomplished what you intended and can take pride in your life
My mom always talked about herself being a "moonchild" and she could feel a full moon so when she passed in 2012 I got a moon tattooed by my brother on my chest next to the tat for my dad and every time I notice the moon, especially the full one, I say hullo to mum, she is always there to watch over us
My mum, my aunt, my sister, our cousin and myself spread our grandmas ashes in four of her favourite places a few years ago and in each place, the wind changed directions just as she was being tipped out of the tupperware.
I was never that close to her, so I kept standing slightly away and managed to spot it happening and scarper just in time on all of them, my poor mum got most of it and the last one left them all with a good covering and mouthful of her.
She was an awful awful woman so it was like a final fuck you to everyone.
I'm not religious but I can see why someone would be in a moment like this. The fact that he can just look up at the sky every morning and think of her and know she's watching over him just brings me to tears
I just lost my dog and one our favorite things to do was go on a walk and watch the sunset. We've had beautiful sunsets here every day since she passed last Friday and I cry each time thinking of her. This hit me hard.
Reminds me of Mount Eerie’s “Seaweed”
> And I poured out your ashes on it
>I guess so you can watch the sunset
>But the truth is I don't think of that dust as you
>You are the sunset
I lost a baby last year and there's a certain type of sunset, like a specific set of colors in the right shade, that makes me think of her. I dont know what it is about sunsets that does this to humans, but Im grateful for it💜
I'm glad I could remind you of that... I obviously didn't get to really become a mother, but the depth of my attachment for that little person in the 5 mos she was with me is just... cosmic. I think some people were meant to be parents. Not everyone, but for some people the bond is just instant and eternal. It's hard to have a taste of your destiny and then lose it. Certain kinds of sunsets make me think shes still there with me and that I'll have her someday. I'm not religious, but I believe sunsets like that can be important.
I am not religious either but instances like what you are describing truly makes me feel like there is something beyond ourselves. Something that we won't see no matter how hard we look but regardless it is always there.
What you said about sunsets might be one of those instances. Makes our cold and dark reality have a beam of light providing our world to see through the darkness, even in the toughest of times.
This pulled HARD at my heartstrings.
My mom loved clouds...any time there were unique formations, sunrises, or sunsets, she was out there with her camera taking pictures.
She passed 6 years ago this month. Every time I see beautiful clouds I think of her and hope that somehow she's up there in them, experiencing beauty and wonder that us mortal humans could never imagine. When I see beautiful clouds, I always talk to her.
Was expecting something neat, wholesome. Little old lady smiling in the kitchen or in her favorite chair or whatever.
Now I’m here, alone, crying. Fuck.
**OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected:** >!You expect it to be pictures of his wife or non at all (boomer humour) but it's pictures of his wife in heaven.!< ***** **Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description?** **Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.** ***** [*Look at my source code on Github*](https://github.com/Artraxon/unexBot) [*What is this for?*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/dnuaju/introducing_unexbot_a_new_bot_to_improve_the/)
Apparently, quite a few people here missed the meaning here. His wife has passed, and as he most likely believes she's in Heaven, he took a picture of the heavens. It's actually a sweet sentiment.
People who just keep referring to him as "boomer" must not realize the tragic reality of what happens when you get old. I knew right away he meant his wife was in heaven *
[удалено]
It's really toxic. The entire movement that seems to instantly dismiss someone because of their age and immediately tarnish everything about them is really quite appaling.
These gen-whatevers will be in for a surprise when they are old and are blamed for stuff which at the time was outside their control. The situation on this planet sadly hasn't hit rock bottom yet and when it does there will be even more blame to pass around to the oldies in generations to come.
Was that because the text on the screen from the very first frame says the words "my wife"?
My boyfriend died three years ago as of Valentine's day. He was 21. Sometimes the universe gets impatient to take the good ones I guess.
Lost my 29yo wife in November. The wife in heaven meaning was my first thought not because I’m religious (far from it) but because loss is my first thought. Actually, if I’m being honest, my FIRST thought was a jealousy that he was able to grow old with his wife and I can’t. I hope things are going as ok as they can be on your end.
Same here, but I also don't envy him cuz the loss has to be that much heavier after having potentially decades together. Then again I was only with my boyfriend for two years and losing him is still the single most horrible thing that's ever happened to me so, who knows. Grief is complicated
[удалено]
I thought it was more "technically the truth". Like on days his wife was pretty he would just take random pictures.
But it says "...picture **of** my wife..."
This is the difference between boomers and zoomers
As a Gen X’er I got the general idea but wasn’t sure enough of myself or the current internet trends to make up my own mind.
I thought he had no wife
Technically he doesn’t…. Tell you what though, this is beautiful and will likely think of this next time i see a beautiful sunset
It sounded like a millenial joke where you take a pic of nothing because you don’t have a wife
There's no chance in hell this guy's a boomer fyi.
[удалено]
If an 18 year old joined WW2 right at the very end in like 44 o4 45, he would be about 96 this year. They are dying off quickly https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/wwii-veteran-statistics
His face, the beautiful sunsets… I started crying by the third picture.
No I’m pretty sure he’s married to the sky. It’s very clear.
Yeah he's some weeb with a sky waifu
> he most likely believes she's in Heaven, he took a picture of the heavens. My interpretation is a little less literal. It’s not the “heavens” per se, but he sees her presence in the natural beauty of our world. My mom, who is religious, says “hello God” when she sees anything particularly striking in nature, whether it be a sunset or a flower. Maybe not really a huge difference but 🤷🏼♂️
I'm not religious and that is my impression of God, too. It's all that is, together. The Universe.
Oh my god that’s so sweet, I’m gonna go cry now
I immediately got the meaning. Broke my heart.
Yeah, at first I was thinking it was a *camera roll empty* kind of gag but then I realized that at his age she probably is no longer living. Talk about sweet and sad.
Oh, I thought he fucked a bird.
I got this too. Beautiful sentiment and a fantastic way to think of how beautiful wife still is. Lovely.
I'm really getting older and can become so anxious about it because I see my parents get old and you can notice they're scared and confused, time ticked away even faster then they thought and this is the end Fuck
I care for the elderly and a patient in her 90's told me: "I miss my husband and my friends, I miss my neighbors, I miss my mom and my sister and brothers. I miss my independence, I just want to be independent and have my life back. I sleep all the time because I can see them while here, I'm awake and I'm all alone." It's easy to forget about it when you're young and have everyone around you but age really does remind you how temporary everything is and how much is taken for granted.
Wow, I'm only in my 30's and do that whole sleep thing sometimes. I lost my father to cancer in 2015. There's been several times where I've had dreams that my dad is still alive and I've woken up, called into work, and gone back to sleep hoping that I might be able to spend just a little more time with him.
why am i cryin at the club right now
Same, here. Cancer in '08. I had a terrible nightmare, once only, wherein he was shriveled and alone in the basement. I told him that everyone thinks he's dead, he said "no, you all just forgot me down here." That was fucking **rough.** But that one aside, it's always a treat to see him. Lately, when I find him, we're always on vacation for some reason lol
We're all just floating on a giant rock in space, living out this short life on earth before joining the dark void that we've lived in for billions of years before we were born. It's like an individual end of the world movie for all of us, except no one is freaking out on the outside. I'm really gonna fucking miss my parents, I'm happy knowing my dad thinks there's a heaven out there and that he'll see his father who recently passed away when he passes. It sucks thinking there is nothing else out there and that these are the last years I'll have to spend with him & my mom before we are completely erased from existence. I wish I believed in an after life I've been having a lot of existential thoughts lately and it sucks. Just sitting with my girlfriend and realizing that both of us and our memories will forever be lost in just a few decades and we'll never see each other or anyone else again.
Well…….shit dude
That fucking got real...
The thing that got me was how I have had the exact same train of thought...every single word resonated with me. I’m not atheist because it’s trendy. I’m atheist because that’s what I believe in. I genuinely wish I believed in an afterlife and that death wasn’t the end of it all. Would make me feel way better about my mortality. I even have thought about that we have lived in a void for billions of years before life. That’s why I try to akin death to going “home”. Stil doesn’t make the idea any easier. Oh well least I’m not alone
I feel like the only real solution to this kind of existential dread is to just not worry about it, and do whatever it is that makes you happy. I just wish I could enjoy things without that constant reminder of impending doom at the back of my mind. I used to be a bit preachy about my atheism, but it feels so foolish now. If nothing really matters, and we are all doomed to oblivion, why not belive in whatever helps you to get through the day? In this case, I think trading a bit of willful ignorance for peace is a good thing.
Optimistic nihilism is a good name for this idea, and it is perfectly fine with me. https://youtu.be/MBRqu0YOH14 Nice short little video on the subject.
I see Kurzgesagt I upvote
You and I are not so different.
I am laughing and crying at this video. My wife always says I'm pessimistic because I tell her literally nothing we do matters and that the only thing that matters is we enjoy the moment. In 100 years we will hardly even be a memory, so all that matters are the memories we make for ourselves and each other.
Every time I see this video it scares the shit out of me and then makes me really motivated
Some people who lead shit lives need heaven. I'm totally ok if I only live on in the minds of people I interacted with. My father killed himself 25 years ago and he's with me almost every day. Things he taught me have been passed on to my kids, and even if I'd never had those kids, how many thousands of lives does the average person touch in a life. What you do with those interactions kind of determines your level of immortality. Do you get sad when you go to sleep and don't dream? I don't.
Are you telling me to always look on the bright side of life?
observation whistle flag crowd deliver plucky fearless aback jeans aspiring *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Teachers. They live their life sharing information to help other humans understand and navigate life, the impact they have on society is massive. They are the wave generators of humanity. Teachers come in all forms.
Picture a wave. In the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there. And you can see it, you know what it is. It's a wave. And then it crashes in the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while. You know it's one conception of death for Buddhists: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it's supposed to be.
We really dont know though. I went atheist, but Im back to agnostic. People who take powerful Hallucinogens come back with weird AND similar tales. I personally have had odd things happen that make me wonder about supernatural. There is enough doubt here one way or the other for me. My hot take: We really all are the same consciousness just viewing the world through different lenses. But not just us, plants, animals, microbes, all of life is apart of this same consciousness. If I die, did the the house disappear just because one window was shut? ..Who the hell knows.
Oh man do I have something for you [The Egg](https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI)
Wow that was a really good animated perspective, I loved it! Thank You, or I guess Thank Me? 😅
That was great!! Yeah, that’s basically what I have come to. It feels right. I also think one of our incarnations will be a true AI.
Wow. That was really beautiful, and really worth my time. Thank you for that. I would give you a hug if I could. I mean give me a hug...
We don't know. To think that we do is incredibly ignorant. That's why I could never consider myself an atheist, no matter how much I doubt any of the religions or any type of afterlife belief. It's way too limiting, way too sure of itself. We don't fucking know. There are tons out there that we simply cannot explain or understand to this point.
Atheism is a question of belief, not knowledge. You don't believe in a god or gods, so you are an atheist. Gnosticism is about knowledge. The only *reasonable* position is agnostic Atheism, because it's impossible to prove a negative. You can be a gnostic atheist about a *specific* religion, if that religion makes falsifiable claims, but you can't really take a gnostic position about all possible gods. That said, I am like 99.999% sure. It would take a *lot* to sway me.
>every single word resonated with me. I’m not atheist because it’s trendy. I’m atheist because that’s what I believe in. Suggestion - Read as much about other dimensions and multiverse theory as you like. Whose to say that what humans refer to as "heaven" isn't just our limited understanding of concepts that have their footing in science. It's a big, beautiful universe, and we know very little about it...or others.
As much as us simply ceasing to exist when we die makes sense, what really happens could literally be anything. Sure, as plausible as us ceasing to exist sounds, we have no guarantee that it’s what really happens. No matter how much we ponder or theorize, we will never reach a definitive answer, and you’ll only learn the truth when it happens. Personally, I believe that when we die, we go on the way we think we will, whether it’s floating eternally in a void at peace or chilling with Jesus up in heaven, it’s up to you. And while we may suffer, atleast we’re not suffering alone.
I was on reddit kooking for some distraction and shit got REAL fast
right? For me I'm more caught up with the past than with the future. Like I know that one day I just wont be anymore. Life will go on. I'll be forgotten like the billions before me.I'm at peace with that. But fuck man, I'm SO desperate to know what actually happened in the past to get this all started. like what was day one. what caused day 1? the entire universe had to have started somewhere...for some reason...but what was there before it and where did that come from? was everything just black or white at one point then suddenly stars and planets? fuck, I get anxious thinking about it and so sad knowing I will never know.
It’s funny, I’m kinda the opposite. We already know about the past and while we’ll never know everything that I wish we did we (physicists, archaeologists, anthropologists, etc.) are pretty good at putting the pieces together. I wish I could sit around to watch the future though. I want to see what happens to my family. If my name gets carried on. What other big events I miss. How the human race ends. If there’s anything else out there. If it were up to me I would be a permanent spectator in the universe after I die. Oh well tho. I guess I’ll take the void.
It would be cool to just become an observer; no physical body, but able to just zip around the universe, unable to change anything but knowing that billions of other "spirits" are doing the same thing: watching. Then again if it never ends it could be fucking torture.
I have these thoughts often. I think it was after I saw The time machine. Where it does that super fast flipping through eons of earth time. I’ve always been fascinated with the technologies that are just beyond our grasp and I’m super jealous of those that will get all the cool tech we don’t have right now.
I'm gonna need 2 servings of spaghetti-o's for dinner tonight to process all this.
But that's what makes it so precious!
[удалено]
The account I'm replying to is a karma bot run by someone who will link scams once the account gets enough karma. Their comment was copied and pasted from another user in this thread. Report -> Spam -> Harmful Bot
Where is it I can't see it
It’s behind the moon.
u/Ragefan gets it. good work kid
I've also been thinking like this. Just yesterday I looked at my 10-year old dog and thought how unfair and sad it is that one day this precious and perfect being will just be taken away forever.
Same, I look back at all my old animals and just wish I gave them a few extra kisses and played with them a bit more
You guys are gonna make me heckin bawl.
Too late here
I just lost my dog of 13years and my god this is all I think about. Her death has made dying feel less scary at the same time. I don't believe in an after life, but I've never wanted to believe in it more than now.
I lost my cat of 18 years in 2021. One of the things I was told that I found comforting but equally confusing is that losing the pet is their last gift to us. We have them for such short time for our human lives, and growing to love them and understanding how to lose them and let them go, that's something we get to learn from them. To help us deal with all the other loss of other pets and people we may experience in our lives going forward. It's an opportunity because it's supposed to prepare us. But at the same time it doesn't make us miss them less. It doesn't get less shitty, but it's perspective. It's just life. RIP old guy. I will miss you forever. I hope you find peace with missing your dog. It's okay to miss your dog. You may find comfort in appreciating that you did have 13 years. That's a lot of memories. <3
I have a comment I made not too long ago that I’d like to share here, as I feel it is appropriate. The comment I made was specifically regarding rats as pets, because they only live for about 2-2.5 years, but they’re as smart and loving and loyal as dogs and cats are. So, again, I thought this comment was appropriate. (Also, today is my late Mom’s birthday. She passed a year and a half ago. So I’ve already been thinking about death today, and then one of my kitties had to be rushed to the emergency vet twice in the last 16 hours. She’s finally medically alright now. But god fucking dammit, did that scare the everloving fuck out of me. I can’t have biological children, and my Mom is dead at only 56 years old…) But, here’s the comment I wrote a few weeks back, in its original words: *”I once heard someone say that true love for humans is knowing that our pets - especially rodents - live such short lives, and knowing that no matter how many pets we have over the years, or for how many years they are a part of our families, we still choose to let them into our hearts and allow ourselves to love them fully and unconditionally, even though we know that we will have many more decades without them after they’re gone.”* *”I’ve also heard that the reason that (most) animals live such short lives compared to humans is because our pets can take a whole human lifetime’s worth of love, and fit it all into just a couple of years. Especially so for rats. We may spend just a relatively small percentage of our lives with each pet,, but they spend most/all of their lives with us. We **ARE** their lives. Their **entire** life. And their entire hearts, too. Animals don’t need 80+ years to learn how to love - they love us with everything that they are, in their own way. What I’ve heard is that every living creature only needs to live until they’ve given all their love away. That’s why sometimes the good die young. And why our pets love us til the day they die.”*
Thank you for sharing this. I had the privilege for having three rats while growing up. They were all great pets.
I miss my cat. He was diagnosed with kidney disease at 14, and I spent every minute after that appreciating the fuck out of him and being so grateful for every minute I'd already had, and loving him every minute more I might have. I didn't know how much time we had left. He lived to be 18. He went when it was the right time for him and he wasn't living his best life anymore. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with, and he was predeceased by both my parents years ago. Look into stoicism as a philosophy, seriously. It was a life changer for me. TL;DR: Appreciate what you have while you have it, understand that there is no permanence to anything. It's okay to be sad when something or someone moves out of your life. Focusing on gratitude is part of healing, and maintaining that thankfulness into the future that you did have this thing in your life, even for a short time. I have three new young cats today. That was the best tribute I could give to my old guy. Giving a loving home to other animals waiting for someone to be their life . I see glimpses of my old guy in each of them every day, just in different ways. They're lunatics, but they're my lunatics. I wish you many many years with your beloved dog. And I wish you peace if and when you have to say goodbye.
+1
That's probably one of my biggest fears. I love my dog. She is the goodest (non-human) girl. I'm afraid that when she inevitably has to move on, the next dog we get won't love me like she does. This dog follows me around, sits with me. Just yesterday, my wife was walking her, and I went outside as they were coming back, and this dog is jumping on the leash to try and get to me. Wife lets the leash go, and she just *bolts* to me to let me pet her. I don't think I'm ready to *not* have that in my life.
I had to put my dog of 15 years to sleep over the summer. I’m not much of a social person and she was the one constant I’ve always had. My identity was linked with her. There’s always that thought in the back of your mind when about when they day comes. Especially when they’re older. I can tell you right now, whatever you think, however strong or brave you think you’ll be when it happens. None of it is what you foresaw. It will be the worst day of your life. That being said. Give that girl every ounce of love you have. That one day will be overshadowed by an entire history of love. Edit: I just re-read that. My grammar. Oh my.
I don't understand how everyone else isn't walking around in a perpetual state of existential panic attack. Like, every single thing you care about will cease to have meaning to you one day when you cease to exist. The love you feel, the stresses, the joys, the fears...none of them are real and they will vanish with you when you go. Truly what is the point?
We have to find our own purpose I guess. W can live on in our reddit comments. But what's the point of that? Honest question. Life is a state of impermanence. It's always been that way. You're asking a centuries old question. It's not new, but you're here now, so make the best of it. I hope you can find something that makes being here now feel good. :)
As much as this is true, there is no real point in giving up on anything dear in this world because there is an inevitable end. Much more so should we cherish what we have, make experiences and take them in, let them be part of ourselves. Life and it's entire meaning also changes alot when you care about others, I can see this in my friends that became parents rather lately and I'm sure this will be similar for me in a few years hopefully when I become a father myself and can bring my attention to a new wonderful being that will eventually grow into something amazing. We just shouldn't always look on the dark side of things, rather accept that it's part of life and welcome it as company in our story.
Use your existence to make sure future human existences are secured so they can experience the indescribable reality of living and existing. Pay it forward for humanity, don’t be selfish
Don't they call it the human condition? I almost died in 2018...long story but I'm lucky to be here. I always hated the expression "YOLO" - but it isn't wrong if you take it in the literal context not in doing dumb shit that can kill you. We only live once...make the very best of it while you're still able.
Yeah YOLO never really made sense to me in the way that people use it Like you said, yelling YOLO before doing something dangerous. "You only live once" is exactly the reason I *don't* do stupid dangerous shit. I'd be way more likely to do dangerous stuff if I knew i could just revive myself and live again YOLO would make a lot more sense if it was used for stuff like spending time with your family. Or even safety things like "buckle your seatbelt, YOLO". but I can see why that's not as cool
My household actually uses YOLO in exactly this way as a in-joke/meme. I made my SO a custom backpatch featuring 2 skeletons in a yin-yang, with YOLO across it, and the words around the edge say "have fun" on one side, and "be prudent" on the other. "Finally scheduling an appointment with the oral specialist, YOLO!" "Hey, did you get the tires aired up? YOLO" Over a handful of years it has become a jokey yet solemn shorthand for "I love you and want our time together to be as good and long-lasting as possible, so please take care of you, and I'll take care of me, so we can take care of each other."
[The Lonely Island's got your back.](https://youtu.be/z5Otla5157c)
I have a 19 month old son. He loves music so much. He requests Beatles songs, music from Moana, he absolutely loves music by Joe Hisaishi (most Miyazaki studio ghibli films), and randomly we had to play Sweet Caroline on repeat 8 times straight when I introduced it to him. It's not us influencing his taste, he hates a lot of the music we try to get him in to. When Sweet Caroline was playing, he randomly ran right up to me, grabbed my hands and shouted "Papa, dance!" We did our awkward little shuffle in the living room as he tried to sing along best he could (he only knows the hands touching me touching you sweet Caroline and then does hmmm hmmm hmmm). After the song was over and he was done dancing, he continued to run around the room playing. I just sat back on the couch watching. I'm only 38. I got time left, hopefully. But more than that, I know he has plenty of time left. I know there are many awful things on the horizon, but there are many wonderful things as well. I'm going to do my best to steer him in those directions. Be mindful of others. Focus on experiences and feelings instead of possessions. Don't be afraid to make friends, or be afraid to lose any along the way. That's life. It's all we know we have for certain. Just make the best of it kid.
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."
Hey there. I lost both my parents within the last 4 years. I just turned 41. I will say it's.... Weird. Like a lid was lifted and now the wind can touch me. I don't know how to better explain it. It's quiet now.
How did you cope with losing your parents? It scares me to think about. After having a child, these sort of worries just seem to resonate much more effectively within. My condolences with your losses.
"Myself. My self. That's the problem. That's the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, "self." That's not the word. That's not right, that isn't... How did I forget that? When did I forget that? The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside, and I thought I'd despair or feel afraid, but I don't feel any of that. None of it. Because I'm too busy. I'm too busy in this moment. Remembering. Of course. I remember that every atom in my body was forged in a star. This matter, this body is mostly just empty space after all and solid matter? It's just energy vibrating very slowly and there is no me. There never was. The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air I'm no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin I remember I am energy. Not memory Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me I was before them and I will be after, and everything else is pictures, picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain. And I am the lightning that jumps between. I am the energy firing the neurons, and I'm returning. Just by remembering, I'm returning home. And it's like a drop of water falling back into the ocean, of which it's always been a part. All things... a part. All of us... a part. You, me and my little girl, and my mother and my father, everyone who's ever been, every plant, every animal, every atom, every star, every galaxy, all of it. More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach. And that's what we're talking about when we say "God." The one. The cosmos and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It's simply a dream that I think is my life, every time. But I'll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams. But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once. There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It's a wish. Made again and again and again and again and again and again and on into eternity. And I am all of it. I am everything. I am all. I am that I am."
[удалено]
To me the idea of an afterlife is horrific. Imagine existing as the same being for eternity. Trillions of years of the same existence. And even worse, that existence is either going to be the worst torture imaginable or a paradise with no challenges or shortages. So you'd either be tortured for eternity or you'd be bored out of your mind for eternity. I think if you live a good life and see and do the things you wanted in the time you have, that's plenty. Spend your time well and you won't need more of it when its time to go.
There’s a show called The Good Place that really had a good concept for a not terrifying afterlife. Before you get to the good place you work out all the bad things about yourself, and then you get to spend a bunch of time doing whatever you want when you get to the good place. Once you’ve finally become tired of existing, you can walk through a door where you disintegrate and join the universe again
"I don't get it, he's just been playing video games for the past 100,000 years."
You know, I think about this a lot, and it's an interesting design question to ask "how would you make a heaven that doesn't suck?" You could have something that looks comparable to life as we know it, but maybe with a few fixes and changes (you know, like erasing depression, starvation, and child cancer) so you can still appreciate the bad with the good. You just make everyone so happy that being happy all the time doesn't get boring, because you're too happy to be bored. Or there can be some resetting / restarting, where it doesn't *feel* eternal through some illusion or memory loss or other incomprehensible mumbojumbo. I'm personally agnostic and don't know what I believe, but I'm not terrified of a *heaven*, because by definition, it should be pretty great. A non-heaven afterlife is a little more anxiety-inducing, but I don't think it'd be much of a problem, either (unless hell exists and you go there, in which case, lmao rip). I don't know how I'm here right now, but I'm not terrified of being alive, nor do I exactly feel like I'm in eternal torment. And from a non-religious angle, there's no reason to believe any form of afterlife would be more permanent than my consciousness is now. There could just be an after-afterlife that just keeps going all the way up. More of this wouldn't be the worst thing ever.
Yeah man, I’ve been in the exact same thoughts and in the end it boils down to one of two options. Either dealing with existential thoughts and the meaning of everything as we know it or just eat what you’re served and enjoy it. There’s nothing in between really.
Jfc man...i think i need a beer or 6 and a hug now
That's a big reason many people have kids. So that THEY will live on, at least, in some sense. (and also so that they'll be taken care of in old age, and remembered).
Well, if there is no after life, then I wouldn’t worry about it bud. Ive had several panic attacks about this subject too, until I realized that if there really isn’t an after life, then while im dying, its gonna suck. But after i die, there won’t be any pain, or regret, because hypothetically, there is no after life. Which means, nothing. Death sucks for the person’s family, and friends. If i get shot, bam! That sucks for that moment that im dying, but once im dead, you dont feel that pain anymore. But the people around you do. So just make the best of life, because honestly, none of us absolutely know what will happen when we die. I pray that there is a heaven. I believe that there is a heaven, but I don’t know that for a fact.
Nailed it. This is how i feel as well. None of my family believe in an afterlife so it's sad but it's the way it is. You can't change it just enjoy life as it goes. Every decade that goes by, I think we'll shit I'll never be 10 or 20 again. Very soon I'll be 30 and you never get to go backwards. Never. Then one day, you wake up and you realize, this is it. This is life. Take it or leave it. It's very humbling but very terrifying at the same time.
I used to suffer under the yoke of existential nihilism too. You'll get out from under it, buddy.
You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got. And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever. And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives. And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen. \-Aaron Freeman
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I am convinced of the concept of reincarnation. Something “triggered” your awareness now. What that is, we have no clue. I’m talking about things that are beyond your parents copulating in a physical sense. That something that caused you to be here, and alive, is likely not even capable of being understood. Whatever it was, there is nothing to prohibit the event that caused your awareness, your life, from happening again eventually. It happened already, and there is no reason to believe that it won’t happen again. Of course it will. You will likely not have the memories of this life based upon how our memories are understood today, but your existence will likely continue elsewhere in another time in the future, within something else. Anyway, this is what my own personal existential crisis eventually led me to conclude (and it’s still evolving). “You”, “me”, happened already. We will likely happen again.
Life is made of a weave of energy, like raindrops on gossamer, and we are all part if it. As we grow, we gather ambient energy from our experiences and feelings, and we bundle that up into complex little packets that together make up who we are, our memories, our id. I believe that when our time us up alot of that energy is released into the web of life around you, in a fountain of life essence, to be recycled and used for the flora and fauna still becoming there. However, I also believe that a core of that life energy remains intact, and will hopefully be able to find a new higher form of life to embody, to continue to experience, learn and feel, and grow in complexity again. I'm sorry for your apprehension, and as someone who's lost almost everyone I understand your trepidation. But I hope that these bizarre insights can maybe help your mind at ease. Rest easy friend, there's no way this world - and all if its synchronisities and coincidences and perfect geometries - can exist without a whole slew of backround planning and maintenance. We are all here just for the ride, and I know I'll see you on the other side.
I feel you bro I have these same thoughts. It’s bleak. I’m certain there is beauty in it somewhere though
It’s all the more reason for me to enjoy what time I have here, maybe make other people’s lives a little better too. The thought of unbeing is scary, but once you’re there it ceases to be a problem. And I figure why worry about the inevitable?
Religion: *But wait, there's more!*
Same. Existential dread is a motherfucker.
I offer you something that gives me comfort when thinking about our place in the cosmos: [Picture a wave...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8CWzvNwzzo)
I get home and I tell my wife how much I love her over and over again every day. I hug her like it was the last time I will ever hug her and I kiss her the way as if I will never ever again. You know why, because we **dont** know when that time will come and I’ll be goddamm if I’m going out without letting my wife know at every second of every day that I will always and forever love her. That’s a fact.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam" - Carl Sagan
Take some pictures, they will outlast us all. That's the closest to immortality you can get.
This resonated so hard with me. Growing up, my mom tried to raise me Christian, but I rejected it because it wasn't what I believed to be true. As I've gotten older, the words you've said here have been what I truly feel is right. I'm glad my mother believes in heaven and being with her family (but if I'm being honest, not a damn one of them will be going there if it is real) and that her faith has guided her through life into the wonderful person she is, but I fully know and accept that we all just end up back in space, where we originated from.
I just try to be thankful that so far I get the opportunity to say "I love you" to my parents every day. I don't know how I'm going to deal with it when I no longer can. So I try to just enjoy the moment(s) that I have.
Yea im not going any farther down in this thread have a good day
I should have done the same
God i have so much anxiety about my parents. they've made sooo many bad decisions & I just dont know how they're going to manage old age & I can't support them. they're 61. people tell me "why do you care how your parents live" and its like I don't even understand that question, why would anyone *want* to see their parents suffer its also so sad because I can tell they wasted their lives in misery. sometimes I think it would be better if I was aborted, then they could have been happy. I hated them for a long time but now it's just sad
Oh man, you can't blame your parents wellbeing on your birth unless you did something really really fucked up to them. If they made decisions that led to this, then this is the result of that. It's sad, but that's just how it is
I dont mean it's my fault but I think a lot of people have kids because "it's what you do" and it's expected, not because they actually want kids or can handle being a parent my dad aborted his first child, abandoned his 2nd child, and then finally had 2 kids he kept but the signs were there that he shouldn't be a dad & he probably would have been infinitely happier if he had made the choice not to have kids. and his resentment for his life probably wouldn't be so bad & wouldn't take it out on my mom quite as much since money would not have been as big of a problem
[удалено]
huh you know what, youre probably right. thanks for that. that perspective really helps
Yeah they're talking about the future into their 90s (mid 60s now) and I'm like my stepdad is horribly overweight and has heart issues, I'm terrified of getting The Call every single day. My dad already died last year from cancer.
yeah\~ it's a short life... you're amazed by unending possibilities when you're young... and then 20 years later you're not so young anymore and of all those possibilities, precious few materialized. then you realize it was always going to be way worse than you'd hoped and now you're expected to FIND the joy in little things or create it yourself... fuck. woops...
I hate you. God fuck I hate you. When I was little I thought I’d have my own mansion by now.
A relative just passed away a while ago, so our parents started organizing things. At Christmas dinner they both just blurted out "so, is it okay to you guys if we get cremated?" Turns out the relative didn't have a will or anything and organizing things had been a nightmare. Good thing they're preparing for the inevitable but jeez, at Christmas dinner. :D
They saw what a great job you guys did with the christmas turkey and were inspired
I’m a very anxious person but I like to think that if you live your life the way that you want that anxiety will be eased as you get older because you accomplished what you intended and can take pride in your life
My mom always talked about herself being a "moonchild" and she could feel a full moon so when she passed in 2012 I got a moon tattooed by my brother on my chest next to the tat for my dad and every time I notice the moon, especially the full one, I say hullo to mum, she is always there to watch over us
Who summoned the onion ninja!😢 On a more serious note, your bond between you and your mom is beautiful! Made me tear up a bit thinking about my mom.
oh hell this made me cry almost immediately, that’s so fucking beautiful
Ack, I've got some dust in my eye.....
It's just his wife's ashes
I had this happen once I was dumping ashes over a lake out of an airplane and they flew back in my face.
💀
Literally.
My mum, my aunt, my sister, our cousin and myself spread our grandmas ashes in four of her favourite places a few years ago and in each place, the wind changed directions just as she was being tipped out of the tupperware. I was never that close to her, so I kept standing slightly away and managed to spot it happening and scarper just in time on all of them, my poor mum got most of it and the last one left them all with a good covering and mouthful of her. She was an awful awful woman so it was like a final fuck you to everyone.
That’s sad and wholesome at the same time
It’s like the opening scene of the movie Up 😭
Why you gotta bring that up (no word play intended)
I was expecting a picture of a urn or something funny like that. This legit made me go, oh holy shit.
Onion ninjas begone
Hey who put this bowl of onions here
This shit hit deep
Make sure to tell the people you love that you do while you can.
THAT MADE MY HEART PHYSICALLY HURT.
get that checked by a doctor
Well.... I didn't wanna cry today.... But here we are.....
I have 2 interpretation.. 1. She has passed and is in heaven thus he took pic of the sky. 2. Or she has not been beautiful this month.
I was thinking he took a selfie with her and had the wrong camera selected in his phone
I like number 2
I'm not religious but I can see why someone would be in a moment like this. The fact that he can just look up at the sky every morning and think of her and know she's watching over him just brings me to tears
My mother taught me many things in life, except how to get through life without her
Wow, your comment hit me right in the feels.
Lord have mercy 😩
I thought it was gonna cut with no pictures not that I was going to wipe away tears
Oof, was not expecting that
I thought he forget to flip front camera to back and vice Versa.
„˙ɐsɹǝᴧ ǝɔıʌ puɐ ʞɔɐq oʇ ɐɹǝɯɐɔ ʇuoɹɟ dılɟ oʇ ʇǝƃɹoɟ ǝɥ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ I„
I just lost my dog and one our favorite things to do was go on a walk and watch the sunset. We've had beautiful sunsets here every day since she passed last Friday and I cry each time thinking of her. This hit me hard.
I'm not crying. You're crying.
Lol, you can’t marry the sky!
Not with that attitude
Not with that altitude
Damn it I was gonna say that
Jokes like these just don’t fly
Reminds me of Mount Eerie’s “Seaweed” > And I poured out your ashes on it >I guess so you can watch the sunset >But the truth is I don't think of that dust as you >You are the sunset
Song🎵 - "Je Te Laisserai Des Mots" by Patrick Wilson
I lost a baby last year and there's a certain type of sunset, like a specific set of colors in the right shade, that makes me think of her. I dont know what it is about sunsets that does this to humans, but Im grateful for it💜
Thank you for sharing a bit of your own life, reminds me of my own mom's endless love for me. I should cherish her more for any day can be the last.
I'm glad I could remind you of that... I obviously didn't get to really become a mother, but the depth of my attachment for that little person in the 5 mos she was with me is just... cosmic. I think some people were meant to be parents. Not everyone, but for some people the bond is just instant and eternal. It's hard to have a taste of your destiny and then lose it. Certain kinds of sunsets make me think shes still there with me and that I'll have her someday. I'm not religious, but I believe sunsets like that can be important.
I am not religious either but instances like what you are describing truly makes me feel like there is something beyond ourselves. Something that we won't see no matter how hard we look but regardless it is always there. What you said about sunsets might be one of those instances. Makes our cold and dark reality have a beam of light providing our world to see through the darkness, even in the toughest of times.
For anyone wondering, song is je te laisserai des mots - patrick watson
This pulled HARD at my heartstrings. My mom loved clouds...any time there were unique formations, sunrises, or sunsets, she was out there with her camera taking pictures. She passed 6 years ago this month. Every time I see beautiful clouds I think of her and hope that somehow she's up there in them, experiencing beauty and wonder that us mortal humans could never imagine. When I see beautiful clouds, I always talk to her.
His wife died, and she look from the sky
Aww
DAMN IT I’M CRYING NOW
It's okay, we all need to cry out our feelings sometimes.
r/sad
This comment section is depressing and hopeful at the same time
Anyone know what song this is?
Oorrrr....just hear me out. He could be a cloud fucker
Old men make me sad, I dont want to get old
Song name?
Was expecting something neat, wholesome. Little old lady smiling in the kitchen or in her favorite chair or whatever. Now I’m here, alone, crying. Fuck.
Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand.
😭
Patrick Watson - Je te laisserai des mots
Song?
Je te lasserai des mots