⏱ Estimated reading time: 3 min read
The primary purpose of human existence is reproduction. The rest is just a mess. Humans, however, are not satisfied with simple purposes. We invent layers. Religions, nations, tribes, armies, empires, ideas of honor, manhood, identity. So on and so forth. All of it circles around two things. Produce life. Protect life.
Survival is the real religion. Everything else is commentary.
And anything that threatens survival, humans have always tried to defeat. Disease, hunger, enemies, distance, even time itself. We built tools, systems, and civilizations to push back against extinction. In almost every battle, we’ve made progress.
Except one.
Death.
You cannot beat death. It will come to you, no matter what.
Man. Woman. Boy. Girl. Poor. Rich. People living in the East. People living in the West. South. North. Everyone will die, no matter what. You cannot beat death. It will come to you in the most unexpected ways. Maybe in your sleep. Maybe while traveling. Maybe during eating, mating, or shitting. Death has no sense of timing because it doesn’t need one; it does not care.
And humans know that. They always do. That’s why we come up with illusions to fight it.
Martyrdom, dying for a cause, trying to bring revolution, working for an idea, building the tallest buildings, going to Mars, Moon, trying to connect with aliens, writing books, writing names in caves, into stones or in some desolate places, giving birth, building monuments, believing in soul, afterlife, and heaven, and worst of all, believing in leaving a legacy.
Ask anyone chasing these things, and they will come up with the idea of living forever, “ETERNITY”. To be remembered. To exist in memory. To stretch their presence beyond their lifetime. But what is eternity? Or what is forever?
Ten years? Twenty? Hundred? Thousand? Million? Billion? Trillion? Or what? What exactly is the timeline? No one knows. And that is the worst and best part of the display. We are trying to fool ourselves. Maybe there is something after death. Maybe people will remember you for thousands of years. But does it matter after death? A person who is remembered for a day is no different than a person who is remembered for thousands of years. At least from the grave.
Because from that side, there is no audience. No applause. No awareness.
Everything here changes. Nations fall. Religions evolve. Empires collapse. Ideas get replaced. Names fade. Even the greatest figures become paragraphs, then footnotes, then dust.
And you?
You are one temporary event in a very long timeline. If this life is temporary, then it is also rare. Statistically absurd. One chance in billions. You didn’t exist for billions of years, and you will not exist for a billion years again. You exist now for a brief moment, and then you disappear again. That window is all you have.
So, the question is not how to defeat death. You won’t.
The question is how to use the time before it arrives.
Chasing legacy. Chasing power. Chasing ideas. Chasing revolutions is fine. But don’t lie to yourself about why you’re doing it. It won’t make you immortal.
If anything makes sense, it’s this. Live the life you have while you have it. Find what makes it meaningful to you. Don’t believe in eternity. Because eternity is an idea. This moment is real.
Things after death will take care of themselves.
It always has.
The only thing left for you is to decide what to do before death shows up.
