Life on Earth – like a wonderful vacation? Posted in: What are we doing here?

In pondering my own mortality, and in particular the temporary nature of life on Earth, I stumbled into a comparing of my life here with the taking of a vacation.

That a vacation is temporary is not normally perceived as a problem.  And that a holiday is not forever is not actually thought of as an impediment to enjoyment of the holiday. Likewise that this life has a beginning and an end doesn’t necessarily need to be taken to indicate it is flawed, a compromised situation for an eternal soul, or without significant value. Rather one can choose to believe that it is by design, and in many ways facilitates the enjoyment of this ‘holiday’.

With a holiday one generally arrives accompanied by close friends or family, makes new friends during, and while one is often sad to leave at the end, one knows they are returning to their real life and the relationship with their loved ones continues. Perhaps the biggest difference is that death looks like a final termination of relationship with loved ones. But for those who find the idea of reincarnation believable (I am talking both religious and non-religious people) this is not necessarily the case. One might speculate that in a subsequent lifetime one rendezvous with one’s entourage of close souls – taking roles as family and friends – to again embark upon another wonderful ‘vacation’.

• Temporary ≠ unreal/illusion
• Temporary ≠ without value