Rodney

When considering death, it's always handy to remember that most of us know what it feels like to be immortal. I honestly didn't consider my own death until I was in my mid-20s. Death, and old age, were not factors in anything that I did.

Now, I do acknowledge death, because I am older, it is closer, and because I have seen relatives and even a few friends my age die. It's a little hard to wrap one's brain around nonexistence, but that's okay. Death is a natural part of life. The fact that my life doesn't go on forever is no tragedy. I would like to live a long time and be mentally and physically fit and functional for all my span, but I want that because I do think that I improve with age and, barring some mental breakdown, that I can continue to improve with age. I'd like to see what kind of person I've grown into by age 80 or more. I know some awesome 80-90-year-olds.

While I do not believe in a traditional life after death, the universe is a strange place, and it may be that I and all of us have immortality of a sort. Various theories of the universe and the multiverse postulate that there are a finite number of ways that matter can be arranged, and given a large enough universe, or alternate universes, all possible configurations currently exist somewhere. If that is true, there always has been ( and always will be) a Rodney. As far as immortality is concerned, that would be good enough for me; and if that's not true, well, I'm also fond of the idea that a self-conscious life form is just a way of the universe expressing itself and observing itself. When I die, I'll still be part of the universe. In some other form.