Fear of Death?

[TheDoctor]

*I thought Bi Polar meant you fancied both male and female arctic bears?*

No, you're thinking of Bi-Curious, where you think a given bike is not really quite you, but you want to have a ride anyway. Just to make sure...

 

[beanzontoast]

I got knocked off my bike just after Christmas (driver held responsible by police, who have been great as were the ambulance crew and casualty staff) and though back - gently -on my bike now, I am still mending - doc says when you're in your 50's 'mending' takes time. Haven't felt much like posting of late.

In later adulthood, I've not been particularly scared of death. It worried me more when the children were young: as dad, husband and main earner (even with good life insurance) I felt the need to be around forever. Times have changed, the kids are fairly independent, and now, I very much want to be around to see them finish uni, maybe get married, have kids - and obviously I want to have lots of time with Mrs Beanz. The 30 years we've known each other seems like 5 mins!

Death as such doesn't scare me - I've always thought of non-existance as akin to a long dreamless sleep. Premature death (hard to define, I know) seems such a waste. I'm not given to reading things into events or ascribing them deeper meaning, but my accident has at least made me reflect on how precious life is.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Most of the versions of afterlife that I've heard about have not appealed to me very much. The suicide bomber 99 virgins version somehow sounds a bit worldly. I'd probably start to feel a bit of self-disgust after a while, although I expect I could cope with it. The version in Revelations sounds well freaky. Although I usually hate Thought for the Day on radio 4, someone one reported Albert Einstein had told someone who'd lost a relative that she would always exist in her part of space-time. It's not a very satisfactory afterlife, but better than nothing, as long as you didn't have an awful life in the first place. The version of afterlife that appealed to me most was the Jewish sheol, which was translated as either hades, hell or the pit in the Old Testament. It confused me when I first read it when I was a God botherer. It's a place where your soul goes to sleep indefinitely.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Bipolar does what it says on the tin, both ends of a pole... ie veering (as in out of control) between depression and mania... two very different states, in one you can do nothing, in the other you are invincible... I used to have the t-shirt

I know. It was always what used to be called 'manic depression'... I still veer wildly, as you might be able to work out even through looking at my posting pattern and content here, but not to quite such extremes as I have done in the past.

 

[Gromit]

I'm not afraid of death, living scares me more!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

but not to quite such extremes as I have done in the past.

So, you've eased up on the going beserk in shopping precincts with a Samurai sword.

 

[Abitrary]

What we have now just makes people confuse being a bit sad, or having what they used to call in the mediaeval period, a melancholic disposition, with being depressed.

Anthropologists have theorised that before we had our own means of creating energy and light, we would go to bed when it got dark and stay there till light, but being longer than we needed for actual sleep, we would wake up half way through and lie there half awake in something called a 'melancholic period' or somesuch for a couple of hours.

Maybe the seasonal affective disorder stuff and us messing around with our body clocks has more to do with overall mood than we think.

 

[gambatte]

lie there half awake in something called a 'melancholic period' or somesuch for a couple of hours.

I remember that!

Then we had kids.....

 

[domtyler]

Anthropologists have theorised that before we had our own means of creating energy and light, we would go to bed when it got dark and stay there till light, but being longer than we needed for actual sleep, we would wake up half way through and lie there half awake in something called a 'melancholic period' or somesuch for a couple of hours.

Maybe the seasonal affective disorder stuff and us messing around with our body clocks has more to do with overall mood than we think.

Didn't they have masturbation in those days?

 

[Melvil]

Didn't they have masturbation in those days?

I'm not sure the blow up dolls would have been good in those days either...'well, we've got leather and wood and now we've got to make a woman'

 

[marinyork]

Anthropologists have theorised that before we had our own means of creating energy and light, we would go to bed when it got dark and stay there till light, but being longer than we needed for actual sleep, we would wake up half way through and lie there half awake in something called a 'melancholic period' or somesuch for a couple of hours.

Maybe the seasonal affective disorder stuff and us messing around with our body clocks has more to do with overall mood than we think.

That's really interesting actually Abitrary. Cheers.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

That's really interesting actually Abitrary. Cheers.

There's was an article about this in the papers a few weeks back. Some tribes didn't treat it as melancholic at all though - they used to get up and dance or do things like that. The ideal of sleeping through the night is a modern thing.