Whale in Space: Observations on Life and Death

Hello.

I'd like to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a whale. He was a happy whale. He spent his day swimming around with his family and playing with his friends. It was a good life.

However, he loved to explore and learn about the world around him. So one day, the whale left his family and started swimming around the world. He saw many interesting and new things he never knew about, like the cold waters of the Arctic and the polar bears living there.

Eventually, somehow, the whale ended up in space. He had bought a space suit from a nice giant squid, and the next thing he knew, he was floating in the dark expanse of the universe.

At first, it was fun. Space was like the ocean; there was the same weightlessness and freedom like in the waters of the earth. There were no boundaries, and the stars and planets were beautiful.

Yet, the whale knew that one day, he will die. The space suit had a limited supply of air and water, and he knew NASA wouldn't spend millions of dollars trying to bring him back to Earth. The whale was fully aware of his eventual and inevitable death.

Aren't we all like the whale? We are stuck in this thing called "life", a large expanse of time. There are no boundaries, except the beginning and the end. It starts out fun, being young and a child and free to do whatever we wanted. But as time goes on, these freedoms are taken and we realize that there is a limited time. We are all going to die.

I like to think of life like a game. There is a starting point, birth, where everyone begins their journey. There is an ending point, death, that everyone will eventually end up. Along the way, there are goals and milestones to reach to achieve the best possible ending. Which begs the question: if life is a game, are there any cheats?

Personally, I believe religion is like a cheat code. In Hinduism and Buddhism, there is the belief of reincarnation, or where someone dies and is reborn over again until he/she reaches spiritual peace (moksha or nirvana). In other religions like Christianity, there is the promise of eternal life, where if someone is a true believer, they will be transported to heaven and live forever in paradise.

Are these ways to cheat death? Or are these just ways that people find comfort in dying? And why are we so scared of dying? What scares us the most: oblivion, leaving all the materialistic things or important relationships behind, or the thought of rotting away?

~LG607