infinite life

Sisyphus: (pauses from rolling his boulder) What’s wrong?

Red Pine: I feel depressed. My life has no meaning

Sisyphus: Why is that?

Red Pine: Because I’m immortal. Centuries ago I made the mistake of drinking the magical cinnabar decoction of eternal life, and now I’ll never die.

Sisyphus: And that’s a problem?

Red Pine: You don’t get it. If life is endless, everything becomes meaningless. I have to keep doing the same things over and over for all eternity. Everything seems pointless and boring.

Heidegger: Red Pine is right. Awareness of death focuses the mind on life. We only value life when we realize that it’s finite. We begin to live when we start to die.

Sisyphus: So life’s finitude makes it valuable. But does death make life meaningful?

(Sisyphus continues rolling a boulder up the hill)

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