“a man in a light cloak was striding directly towards the Temple; he was shown from the back, and there was nothing remarkable about him. It was supposed to be Shakespeare; without predecessors, unconcerned about paragons of the past, he walked straight towards immortality.”
“Of course, the immortality that Goethe talks about has nothing in common with religious faith in an immortal soul. What is involved is the different, quite earthly immortality of those who after their death remain in the memory of posterity. Everyone can achieve immortality to a smaller or greater degree, of shorter or longer duration, and this idea already starts occupying people’s minds in early youth.”
“Naturally, when it comes to immortality people are not equal. We have to distinguish between so-called minor immortality, the memory of a person in the minds of those who knew him (the kind of immortality the village mayor longed for), and great immortality, which means the memory of a person in the minds of people who never knew him personally. There are certain paths in life which from the very beginning place a person face to face with such great immortality, uncertain, it is true, even improbable, yet undeniably possible: they are paths of artists and statesmen.”
You have probably heard or read this from me before: “Of how in 300 years time nobody will ever remember our existence or the existence of all the people walking by us and life just refreshes itself and is that all life means in the end? Nothing to be kept, all brushed away, every single person unable to escape this…. cycle. I am afraid of meaning so little to people. I want people’s minds to tremble with the thought of my words and my face and just me all the time when they walk in the streets. I don’t ever want to burn out, I want to live forever. Doesn’t it scare you that we are just specks of dust so meaningless and so insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe? In the end we return as ashes and dust to the ground where we were born and that is what I am afraid of. I want to exist as an idea, because ideas never really get destroyed.” (from my post dated Dec 3rd, 2013)
and i was, at that time, fearful of oblivion. but it was after i read the book “Immortality” by Milan Kundera that I realised it was not a fear of oblivion but an obsession with immortality that i was having. I was afraid to be ordinary, but more than anything i crave to be spectacular. And this thought have been in my mind for months now.
But recently a change came over me, and i began to think that i should not strive to be the best, i should just, strive to be the best at what i do. To make a difference in a smaller sphere, to make a mark on people i love, not the people of the planet Earth. Maybe I’m getting more mature. Maybe I’m getting more realistic, maybe I’m more aware of my shortcomings and limitations…Maybe i am already on the side of “contentment”, or, positive resignation.
Well, today my mum told me that my grandma, is in fact, immortal. My god, imagine my surprise.
From http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E5%A7%9A%E7%8E%89%E5%8D%8E
Not only was she a doctor, she wrote/edited books. I had no freaking idea. I wish that when i get older yall can type me into the search engine and find my profile there and I will be immortal.
Despite my grandma being immortal, more to the lives she had saved and the babies that have reached Earth through her tender hands than the rest of the world, she was mortal to me.
Immortality is not important. I think when i am old i will probably (as yang have predicted for me) be doing an ordinary job and getting high pay and being very contented with it.
nounscape 