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Wednesday, November 12, 2003
No one escapes from life alive
It's times like these, times when I am doomed to fail my courses, times when I have five essays and one midterm in the next three weeks, this kind of time when I think about what my aunt Elizabeth told me back in grade 4.
I was going to a very stressful school in Ottawa. Looking back, the pressure they put on us was nothing short of ridiculous. Memorizing 5-stanza poems and reciting them to the class at the age of 10? Craziness.
Anyway, I'd gotten back a 90 or something, and I was freaking out. And she said: "Think of it this way. The worst that could happen is that you die".
You might think she was joking, but she wasn't, which I appreciated. Adults too often make light of a child's crises. In this case, she was deadpan serious..and her advice helped.
Think about it: is dying really that bad? Absolutely not. Even if you're an atheist, death can be preferable to life: eternal nothingness. No responsibilities, no worries, void. And if you happen to buy into Catholicism, which I do to a very limited extent, death is a bonanza of wonderfulness. I think the way the Church is leaning now, it's all but impossible to end up in Hell. Here are a few gems I learned while getting confirmed:
Mortal sins land you in the pit. A mortal sin is something that contravenes the 10 commandments: a biggie. Anything else is a venial sin, and you can buy your way out of those in purgatory.
But wait...even mortal sins can be excused. If you have even a split second before death to recant your sins [ie say to God: "I am soooooo sorry, I never should've done that, please please please forgive me], if you do this sincere act of contrition... you're forgiven! Up you go!
And even if I was wrong about this theory of contrition, the fact that I don't know better would excuse my sins anyway. So many loopholes.
Point being, it's times like these that I like to consider what's the worst that could happen and find some measure of peace. As long as death is the end result I've got nothing to worry about. I'm either going to blissful nullity or heaven. I'm pretty sure papers won't follow me to either.
I was going to a very stressful school in Ottawa. Looking back, the pressure they put on us was nothing short of ridiculous. Memorizing 5-stanza poems and reciting them to the class at the age of 10? Craziness.
Anyway, I'd gotten back a 90 or something, and I was freaking out. And she said: "Think of it this way. The worst that could happen is that you die".
You might think she was joking, but she wasn't, which I appreciated. Adults too often make light of a child's crises. In this case, she was deadpan serious..and her advice helped.
Think about it: is dying really that bad? Absolutely not. Even if you're an atheist, death can be preferable to life: eternal nothingness. No responsibilities, no worries, void. And if you happen to buy into Catholicism, which I do to a very limited extent, death is a bonanza of wonderfulness. I think the way the Church is leaning now, it's all but impossible to end up in Hell. Here are a few gems I learned while getting confirmed:
Mortal sins land you in the pit. A mortal sin is something that contravenes the 10 commandments: a biggie. Anything else is a venial sin, and you can buy your way out of those in purgatory.
But wait...even mortal sins can be excused. If you have even a split second before death to recant your sins [ie say to God: "I am soooooo sorry, I never should've done that, please please please forgive me], if you do this sincere act of contrition... you're forgiven! Up you go!
And even if I was wrong about this theory of contrition, the fact that I don't know better would excuse my sins anyway. So many loopholes.
Point being, it's times like these that I like to consider what's the worst that could happen and find some measure of peace. As long as death is the end result I've got nothing to worry about. I'm either going to blissful nullity or heaven. I'm pretty sure papers won't follow me to either.
# posted by Spot @ 4:29 p.m.
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