Immortality

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,

The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,

Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,

And after many a summer dies the swan.

Me only cruel immortality

Consumes; I wither slowly in thine arms,

Here at the quiet limit of the world...

Tithonus by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This poem, which goes on at some length about the horrors of living forever put me off the idea of immortality when I read it. People like to live forever. To be an Immortal being. I would rather die. We tend to think of death as something apart from life but it is a natural cessation of most things, unless you're a jelly fish or cancer cell. I'm pretty sure that I'm neither one (had a good check in the mirror) and I don't want to live forever. I'm happy to die when the time comes, which will be of my own choosing because I refuse to hang around after my health fails and I reach the "lean and slipper'd pantaloon" of the sixth age. I couldn't imagine myself being immortal. The concept of that i will never ever perish from existence. At some point I think I would get tired of living. Actually I've reached that point.

Immortality doesn't promise Utopia. Immortality with all the evils of society that are already present and can only get worse because people will stop dying. Criminals will still be criminals, the poor will still be poor (although maybe not able to afford immortality treatment), jerks will still be jerks. It just promises to exacerbate problems that society already has. Immortality is closer to being achieved scientifically, if you believe the news items, than a utopian society. I think the problems in society should be fixed first before we start promising all and sundry everlasting life. Damn, the concept of immortality is so damn depressing. Forever bound as slave to life. At least for me.  Work forever. Forever working. No retirement, no pension, no having fun spending my kids inheritance on a humorously named yacht and leaving the rest of my money to the dog! I was looking forward to these things, dammit! That sounds like a fun plan. Drifting to the end of time. 

What's there that isn't fascinating of becoming immortal? But think about it. If no one dies, and more are born, resources are going to become pretty tight, you can only turn so much land to wind farms, solar power plants, nuclear power stations etc. And fossil fuels will start to run out on account of a lot of people (who should be decently dead) still using them and a lot of people who were born after immortality was achieved, wanting their fair share too. The population of the world is pretty high as it is....7 billion. And it will probably hit over 10 billion by 2050. Imagine the figure it would reach by then if no-one died! What are we all going to eat? Each other? Where are we all going to live? How will our resources be divided? Rich first (those who can pay high prices) and the poor, undying, shoved to the sidelines. If you were immortal, you would enjoy it for at least 100 years doing whatever you want. After that, you spend your time trying to think of something else to do. Assuming you don't get crushed underneath a rock. Also all your mortal friends and family will eventually die and you'll have to be lonely forever to not deal with other's death. Then you'll be thinking about how painful it is and how will you escape. 

Claire de Lune, that's all I can say. And cry to. And die to. And my life to and close my eyes and listen to the music and my choking breathes. I want to die ever so badly. To hear the lasting cries as I plummet off a building. In my ears, Claire de Lune will play. Tears on my face will ever so drip, and a sensation of flying will be through my seeming less weightless body. I guess this is rather a wish, a choice which I am reluctant to make, and most of all, my end which may come. I may not do it today or tomorrow, but one day courage will come into my soul and bring me to that building. I am nothing, nothing to offer, so I'll bring this to the end where, how can I be immortal when my soon fate will end at twenty one. How can mortality be good, when personal demons never go away; that pain will just add and add. I guess this is a confession of someone which may soon be gone. Which may soon be at peace. Well these are just mere words from me. An honest opinion. Peace out. Assalamualaikum.