View Single Post
Old 10-25-2004, 07:39 AM   #25 (permalink)
aRs3N1c42
Upright
 
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
I agree with many of the responses where it was stated that it is very difficult or impossible to say what one would be able to die for until the person is placed in the situation. As a student of psychology and human nature, I sincerely believe that mental preparation by repeatedly rehearsing one's actions prior to an event, regardless of how unlikely, will increase one's capacity to follow through with the desired action. I would want to exhibit such courage as to give my life up so that my wife and children would have the opportunity for a full life, even at the expense of one they love. Grief is only for a time, were I to give my life in exchange for their life, they would have the chance to come to terms with their grief and move on to a full life. I continually rehearse the feelings I expect I would feel in such a situation so that should I ever experience that type of situation, I will be able to act decisively and fullful in death the very values and ideals I hold in life.

What would I die for?

I've already said my family (wife, kids, siblings, parents).

I'd die for my faith. History has proven the power of martyrdom. The death of a person who believes strongly in something tends to encourage that belief in others. The fact that some one believes so strongly that they would give up their life for that very thing is an inspiration to those who know that person. It is in the face of death that all our values and ideals become distilled to those few things we hold most dear. I was mere millimeters from severe brain damage and/or death. In the days following, I had the opportunity to evaluate my values and ideals to weed out those that were irrelevant and cling dearly to those with impact beyond myself.

As stated above, we will all die some day. Everyone dies. What matters most is what impact you have had on the people around you that they can pass on to future generations. Hopefully my life will have had a positive impact on the future of my children and the other people my life touches. If dying will further magnify that impact, then I'm all for it. Bring it on!
__________________
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
----Albert Einstein
aRs3N1c42 is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360