IMMORTALITY OF AN IDEA by warpedpoetic

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· @warpedpoetic ·
$1.29
IMMORTALITY OF AN IDEA
Every man dreams of living a long life and most wish they can live eternal. Religious beliefs perpetuate this with the ever living soul of the Christian doctrine and Islamic doctrine and the reincarnation belief of other religious groups. Though not the kind of eternal life that the human race would prefer, it is still there in a way. You may have heard of the Philosopher's Stone and the elixir of life among other mythical items expected to grant one long life. In popular media, from books to movies, the exploration of eternal life as envisaged by the imagination of men is interesting. From the powerful elves of Tolkien’s Middle Earth to the often lonely vampires of Anne Rice, from the beautiful and knowledgeable immortal in the Age of Adaline to the superhero in Captain America, man’s imagination has tried to put a face to what it meant to live forever or at least to live really long lives. 
***
<center>![penglai-1138642_1280.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUrJQWUTzKfVzveZnTF1ZdB4meWuNSBKRUKEeR35dAUQG/penglai-1138642_1280.jpg)</center><center><sub>*[pixabay: Loins](https://pixabay.com/photos/penglai-the-eight-immortals-travel-1138642/)*</sub></center>
***
Science has devoted a lot of time to understanding the human body and to identify why our cells degrade over time. Research is ongoing to find a way to stop aging meanwhile plastic surgeries, anti-aging creams and all sorts of experimental drugs are being used to prolong the youthful look despite the fact that the body is in truth still degrading. In fact, man begins to age the moment he takes his first breath in the hospital. Why are we so concerned about eternal life or longevity?

It can be understood for the wealthy that as a result of the wealth they have amassed, there is the need to live as long as possible in order to enjoy the wealth. It is quite common for a man or woman to strive for most of their lives, depriving themselves the simple pleasures of life in the bid to gather as much wealth as they can. It is also common for these wealthy individuals to find themselves too old to enjoy the wealth by the time they pause to take a breather from all the hustle. It is not surprising that they would seek for ways to extend their lives in order to enjoy the fruits of their labours. But the poor too seek long life. They hope too to live longer and be healthy and fit while they live it. They may not have any idea of how to get their next meal but they are definitely not ready to leave the earth any time soon. 

Why is man so afraid of death? Why do we strive so hard to stay alive as long as possible? It could be because we do not know what to expect when we die. The afterlife has always been described in human terms. Those who have sought to explore life beyond the grave have seemed to be able to understand the afterlife from the experience of a human being as opposed to a spirit,whatwver that may mean. Are spirits of the same nature as the physical body made of earth? Do spirits feel pain in the same way, hear, think, taste, breathe? The bible talks of mansions of gold and all that but do spirits need houses? Why would a spirit need a mansion? To sleep, to eat, to sit? Are those not all too human attributes? Do spirits drink or have sexual needs? Is the afterlife not too human for it to be real? 

Even hell is described with human senses; red hot flames, pain, screaming, crying, gnashing of teeth. Are these not human attributes? Can a spirit cry? The answers are not here but this need to give the afterlife elements of the mortal realm shows how much man truly wants to live forever. Even as spirits, we so much want to enjoy all the senses that we enjoyed while on earth. This for those who consider that a spirit realm exists, that there is heaven and hell.

Now in most of the literature and media that have been used to portray the immortal, there has been some common denominators; loneliness, fear, empathy. To live forever means to watch the people you love leave you, watch the world change around you so many times, watch those beliefs, opnions, philosophies you used to hold dear become stale in your mouth. This is a fearful thing and it is not often considered by those who seek immortality because it is always seen as a surmountable problem until one has loved for three hundred years and realizes the mistake made. 

In The Age of Adaline, Adaline lost her dogs who also functioned as her companions so many times and she had to mourn their passing. Her own daughter was already grey and withering right before her eyes while she still looked a beautiful young lady. Her only friend was a blind lady who thought she was as wrinkled as herself. She ended and affair because she was afraid of telling the man she loved the truth. Yes it is a movie but you could see that she was slowly losing the battle at being okay with her lot. At the end when she saw the single grey hair on her head after the reversal of the incident that led to her longevity, no one was happier than she. 

To live for too long might be a beautiful dream. Indeed, it would be awesome to live for as long as Methuselah in the bible but it is wise to wonder if it will be worth the trouble? Would it be more entertaining to have lived an average human span of life filled with adventure, love, kindness, joy than to live forever and be alone with no one who can remember how your secondary school days was like? 

The truth is that we can still live forever without the need for all of the anti-aging treatments and plastic surgeries. We just need to leave legacies that will survive beyond us. We need to understand that great men are not considered great by the amount of money, companies, investments they left behind when they die or how long they lived before they died but rather by the effect they had on the lives of the people who came in contact with them. 

You may be rich, which is good but instead of pursuing anti-aging creams and plastic surgeries, you can make a difference in your community and leave behind some part of you that will never be forgotten no matter the years. People like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Galileo, Aristophanes, Alexander the Great, Ramses the Great, Julius Caesar, Ghandi, Margaret Thatcher, Valdimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Ernest Hemmingway, William Shakespeare, Wole Soyinka, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Horace, Mother Theresa, Cleopatra, etcetera etcetera, have left behind indelible marks on the sands of time and no matter the fact that they in most cases have been gone for thousands of years, their legacies still live on. That is immortality. 

People will not forget Albert Einstein or Bill Gates in a hurry for they have left their names in print forever. This is the most assuredly successful way to remain alive forever. For if we consider the immortality of the human flesh over the immortality of an idea, it is actually sweeter for the immortality of an idea to be the preferred path to immortality. Consider someone like Methuselah who it was said did not die but walked with God after living for so long. For that length of time that he lived, what was his contribution to the human race besides procreation? With age comes wisdom, it is said. What wisdom did he pass down to generations after? The oldest living man in the history of man according to the Christian belief was mentioned in passing, he was not discussed at length in the bible but consider what knowledge he must have had before he left the earth. It would have been impressive. We will never know what he knew or if what we know now is as a result of what he shared with his people. Leonardo Da Vinci definitely did not live as long as Methuselah but he certainly left enough to cause comment among the artistic and scientific community for years to come. Jesus Christ did not live for as long as Methuselah but he left behind a movement that has spanned thousands of years despite persecution, misapplication, misunderstanding, overzealousness, confusion and so on and so forth.
 
The point here is that the immortality of an idea cannot be overemphasized. An idea will live longer than any man and the person behind the idea will do better with his or her idea being alive than being a thousand years old scientist or writer. A man who has lived for too long would one day find the world to be a lonely place to live in but an idea is never lonely. It births new ideas and so on. A man who has lived for too long would find it difficult to connect with other men as time goes by but an idea can be refurbished, restructured, renewed with each passing generation.

Man will always seek for the stars because we were created to always question our world. We see possibilities and opportunities. We seek to understand the why, the how, the what and the who and it is quite possible that one day, a way to avoid death will be discovered but it would definitely create more problems than we already have now; overpopulation being the least of the problems. It would be fairer to this planet if the human race, in passing, leaves it better than we met it. It would be right to let the flowering of grand ideas and visions that will stand the pressures of time and civilization be our pursuit as this is the cleanest way to leave behind a part of us for those coming after to see, enjoy and understand. Good night.
***
©warpedpoetic, 2019.
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vote details (267)
@lauvlad89 ·
Thanks for the text. It was very insightful reflecting and interesting. Ideas live longer than people. As humans we are always searching for new mountains to climb. 

I have written similar about human right to life can be also developed into a positive right to eternal life. When it comes to risks for overpopulation I think that one solution is self-regulation when one wants to die and also that people will have the chance to live in space. https://medium.com/@vladanlausevic/from-human-rights-to-cyborg-rights-updating-european-constitutionalism-for-globalization-4-0-10fa8377b3c4
👍  
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vote details (1)
@warpedpoetic ·
Is any regulation not a sense of control. It is simply saying that government will decide when anyone will want to die because I can say that a lot of people will not want to die especially if they are where they want to be. 

Interesting comment though. I appreciate you stopping by.
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@lauvlad89 · (edited)
Yes, but regulations will exist as long as humans exist. Even in an anarchist society community members establish informal regulations. This is why my argument is based on promotion of the human and natural right to life as a positive right so that every individual would be able to choose as much as possible, 

You welcome, and thanks for feedback :)
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@vintage-m ·
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@steem-ua ·
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@afrikablr ·
We need motext like this with a lot inner connection.
👍  
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