Everything Must Die

"There is no permanence."

This quote means that everything in this world must eventually come to an end. Nothing lasts forever except for time. Time, coincidentally, is what causes everything to end, or die. Time transforms new to old, shiny to rusty, energetic to worn, fresh to stale.

As human beings we are scared of death and the end of everything we know and love. Eventually we must come to terms with the notion of death and impermanence and accept that everything must come to an end. Death is the natural part of the life cycle and it is the price every living thing pays for living.

Seldom does one generation think about the world ten generations later. Human beings abuse their world by doing what is easy: we consume ridiculous amounts of gasoline, paper, and other natural resources to satisfy the needs of "now." We do not think ahead of time what problems we could be causing for our relatives and the world in general by being so selfish. About half of the mature rain forests which once thrived have been felled in the selfish quest for resources to accommodate the growing population.

We must overcome our fear of death or we will be destined to be miserable our entire lives. Instead of waking up each day and contemplating how much time we may have left on earth, we must ask ourselves "How can I make the most out of today?" and ignore that we will eventually die. "Give in to love, or live in fear." This quote from the musical RENT can be applied to the notion of living everyday to its fullest. Many of the characters in RENT have AIDS and must learn to cope with the disease and overcome their fear of dying from it. Instead of sitting around and thinking about how they will die, the characters celebrate life and open their hearts in unexpected ways.

Similarly, we must open our hearts and love as much as we possibly can because, after all, life is about loving. Without love we are miserable. We all naturally feel the need to love and be loved. We are able to cope with the notion of death by loving. With love, we can overcome anything, even death. Even though a loved one may die, the time you and that person shared will live on in your memory and that is how he or she lives on forever. Knowing that you loved and that you were loved in return is worth the price of death.

We go through life following a very regulated path. From the time we are only a few years old we are told what we must do to have a "happy life": go to school, go to college, get a job, get married, have children. Is that really the key to happiness? Is that how we want to spend our one life? We don't think about these things when we are so young, we're just happy to have a path to follow. It is when we get older that we question this vision of the ideal life. We ask ourselves "what about what I want to do with my life?" and "what makes me happy?" The answer to these questions are the only things that will give us a sense of satisfaction and happiness in living. It is when we do not know what makes us happy when we turn to fame in desperation of being remembered forever. The fear that you will die without being remembered is one of the most common amongst human beings. Being remembered forever is, in a way, living forever.

After Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh becomes obsessed with finding eternal life since he is scared of dying. He is unable to find eternal life and lives out the rest of his days miserable. The ironic thing about Gilgamesh is that he did in fact live on through literature and accomplished his quest for eternal life.

The thing we must remember is that we must make the most of each day by loving and trying as many new things as possible. We must live in the moment and not think about the past or the future. This is how we will get full satisfaction out of life and, in a way, even cheat death.



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Now playing: Rufus Wainwright - Do I Disappoint You
via FoxyTunes

What Is A Hero?

In Beowulf, The Odyssey, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Lord of the Rings, the main character, or the protagonist, is involved in some kind of struggle which he/she must overcome.

A hero is an individual who is courageous, selfless, and possesses some kind of extraordinary power. A hero must be courageous to face seemingly insurmountable odds. For example, Luke Skywalker in Star Wars had to take on the task of destroying the Death Star which seemed impossible. He succeeded in doing this by courageously taking on the task, putting the freedom of the galaxy before his own needs, and, most importantly, using the "Force" (which he is especially good at) and thus makes him a hero.

A woman can most definitely be a hero. Some of the greatest pop icons are heroines (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). The reason women did not have the leading role as a hero in the books written/movies made is because these works were created at a time when women were generally never viewed as "real heroes". This sexism is derived from the stereotype of women being less capable of men in general.

Heroes serve as role models for many. Heroes give hope to those who may have none, even though many heroes are fictional. We need heroes to solve the problems that "everyday people" cannot. The quote "Unhappy the land that needs heroes." says that unless there are no problems in a society, heroes are needed. Heroes obviously cannot satisfy the needs of everyone and that is why the "land" is unhappy.

Realistically, ordinary people can be heroes. A hero doesn't have to be a muscular man in spandex who can fly. Real life heroes are often never glorified, much less noticed. A real hero, to me, is one who does what is moral without expecting to get anything in return. A hero could be an older brother or sister taking time out of his/her day to play with a younger sibling. A hero could be a father who decides to say "No." just once to his demanding job in order to spend time with his family. A hero could be a teacher, a classmate, a stranger. The one sole thing heroes do for us, fictional and real, is give us hope. If one person can renew my faith in the human race, he or she is a hero to me.