Life is hard....Then you die.
 

Think about this statement, for it is the secret to life.
If you know life will be hard, and truly expect it to be, you are not suprised by the everyday trials. Yet as you are expecting adversity, when it does not arrive, when life is actually pleasant, it seems so much more enjoyable.
And knowing all these things will eventually come to an end, you live in a fuller state day to day.....and also see an end to any grief you actually do feel.

I was wondering if anyone else looks at life in this way?

Some quote i heard
"If you plan for the worst, everything will be a pleasant surprise."

no day or night lasts forever, the sun always sets and rises

Life is hard and you will die. So fuck it, make the best with what you are given.

When I think about life, and expectations for it, I sometimes think of this bit of dialog from Babylon 5:

"I ran away. I realized that I always defined myself in terms what I wasn't. I wasn't a good soldier like my father, I wasn't .. the job.. I wasn't a good prospect for marriage or kids. Always what I wasn't, never what I was. But when you do that, you miss the moments. And the moments are all we've got. When I thought I was going to die, even after everything that's happened, I realized I didn't want to let go. I was willing to do it all over again and this time I could appreciate the moments. I can't go back, but I can appreciate what I have right now, and I can define myself by what I am, instead of what I'm not."
"And what are you?"
"Alive. Everything else is negotiable."

This is definitly not the paradygm for my life.

It works, but it is no different then placing the positive as the default center of life.

If one look’s at life’s default position as hardship and death then the experience of joy and life will become more intense but their over all frequency will diminish.

On the other hand if one look’s at life from the default position of joy and life then experience of hardship and death will diminish in frequency but will become more intense when confronted.

There is also a middle path, which is the one that I prefer to take, that is somewhere between these two views.

Pessimists unite! And pessimistic though I am, things always seem to work out. Rock on!

Life can sometimes be excrutiating.
And then there's God.
He knows how it all ends, so I just relax, let go and look for the next right thinbg to do. He has the rest of it covered. I'm not always successful at the relaxing part, but when I do relax, the scenery is awesome!

Life isn't really that hard. At least not in the context of the millions of people who suffer exponentially more than any of you every day of their lives. Self pity is for people who lack perspective. The key to survival is being able to take everything life throws at you on the chin and then saying, "Thank you sir, may i have another".


P.S. knock on wood

Well, that's the crux of it, isn't it? Go through life just trying to get by, waiting to die, that's the way to do it.

Not that i don't prescribe to it. I'm such a cynic.

It seems to me absurd to think that something as large and all-encompassing as life could be characterized by a few words.

I don't know about outlooks on life (pessimistic, cynical, optomistic, naive, etc.) but I have learned to enjoy the beautiful things. A beautiful day, an attractive woman, a delicious meal, good conversation, a satisfying beer, the feeling of safety, a smoky gaze, a delighted laugh--I better stop, I'm sounding like a mushy poet. But really, there is poetry in life, and sometimes we have to be reminded it's there, even if it's right under our noses, because that poetry is often obscured by the smog of our daily drudgeries.

Ditto Art, ditto.

I personally don't ascribe to this reasoning...I feel it robs me of some of the wonderment of the expectations of life.

My good friend, maddemon802, wisely states " Wanting is an intergral part of the joy of having."

Preparing to fail, preparing for disappointment, steals much of the joy of the event.

DEFEAT YOUR INNER CYNIC!!!!!

EMBRACE YOUR INNER OPTIMIST!!

How about "I am"?

That doesn't really do justice to the experience of being, does it?
It states the existential fact - but I wouldn't say it characterizes the actual experience of living.

I could be wrong but I believe tecoyah is talking about acceptance of hardship and death rather then their embrace. So one in such a state would learn to accept hardship and death as a natural part of life. Thus making oneself resilient to the shock of experiencing hardship and pain.

I am not being a smart aleck when I say that you need to look at that again, Art.

Yes, it states a fact, but I think it states much more than that (even if I weren't religious).

For example, imagine a quiet coffee house where a poet stands up. The crowd is completely silent. Then, with a sure voice, full of power, the two words.

I AM.

Now, as an audience member, do you brush them off or do you explore, "Just WHAT did he mean by THAT??"

This is similar to- Life's a bitch. And then you die.

Or- Life's a bitch. And then you marry one.

Anyways, I believe in this motto, which is why I live my life to the fullest and enjoy everyday and do what pleasures me the most so I can have the most fun of my life and live for now instead of tomorrow.

I think it characterizes the defining characteristic of existence.
If you wanted to you could call everything else details. If not for "I am" there would be nothing.

You are indeed right. I am by far the most content person I know, because I do not consider life as the perverbial bowl of cherries. Mind you, I am by no means a cynic, but I am a realist. I feel no need to hide from negativity, but rather expect it and to a certain extent have learned to enjoy the learning experience.

I think perhaps I know what you're saying now, but at first your views appear nihilistic.

Generalized expectations of random disharmony are wise.

Always looking over your shoulder is paranoia!

And always waiting for the other shoe to drop...well that's post traumatic stress syndrome!:crazy::D

There's a such thing as a FACT in existentialism?

"Truly son. In fact, I'd rather have this bottle in front of me than a frontal lobatomy!"


(sorry, I couldn't resist. Bonus points if you source the quote w/o google :) )

Is it from the bathroom wall at the coffeeshop i used to work at?

"In the long run we are all dead."

- John Maynard Keynes

(He wasn't really summing up the human experience, but still)

The first part of your statement tecoyah sounds to me like the paradigm of pessimism. I'm not a pessimist.
Maybe I'm not talking about exactly the same thing, but there was a point in my life when I noticed that the shitty parts come in cycles, and that helped me live through the less endurable things. In that sense I would agree.
But I still haven't bought into the living life fuller in fear of its ending. I don't care. When I'm dead I'm dead and will never roam again. I try to enjoy my life just because of the fun of it. And, hey, sometimes I succeed. Might even be often :)

life is death and then you are free

Life being hard is a choice. Most people think 70-90% pessimistic.
It is because we are begging to really know more. We're lost, unsure, or insecure about who we are and our purpose. Those negative thoughts create enough energy to cause those thoughts to be real in their minds. Pessimism is a form of guard against our feelings and thoughts, wonderments and confusion.

Guess that would be relatively accurate if you fear death.....which I cant say I do. To me, death is just another step and will hopefully bring about a new adventure.
As for a pessimist outlook, that is off the mark. To be a pessimist, requires a belief that life is negative. I do not view the black and white, as it is all good in the long run.