Speed Up Or Slow Down?

[Grido]

If Death Meant Just Leaving The Stage
...Long Enough To Change Costume
And Come Back As A New Character...
Would You Slow Down?
Or Speed Up?

[Seigheart]

I would remain at my current speed and hope I don't forget the lines

[Totenkopf]

[quote name='Vicarious' date='22 July 2010 - 08:35 PM' timestamp='1279820141' post='64365']
I would remain at my current speed and hope I don't forget the lines
[/quote]

I would increase my current speed by snorting the lines.

[Burns]

slow down, a lot.

As it is, i firmly believe that this one life is all i got, and i want to do all kinds of things that sound funny and interesting just because i wouldn't want to get old and say myself 'hell, i never snorkled with sharks, i didn't ride a Monster at 180 mph, i never learned to surf etc.'.

If there was more than this lifetime, i'd take it easy, do things slower, more thoroughly, and probably find them more enjoyable, instead of trying it a bit and stopping once i learned how to.

Live fast, love hard, die young!

[dst]

Definitely slow down. I have the certainty of just this one life.

This is kind of spooky cause I have been thinking a lot of life and death this week and I don't believe in coincidences....

2 days ago my primary school math teacher's daughter died of cancer. She was just 2 years younger then me. I knew her since she was 10. She was diagnosed 2 years ago and the doctors gave her less then 1 year. She survived for 2. She was conscious till the last moment and she kept saying she wants to live. She begged everyone to help her live. I get goosebumps just by thinking at it. I was too coward to go to the funeral.I simply was unable to imagine her dead. My mother went since my teacher is also a family friend. She called me today to tell me about it. I started feeling sick and sad just by listening.

Last week, a well know Romanian singer committed suicide.She was healthy, she had a husband and a 1 or 2 years old kid. She was about to release a new album. All in all she seemed to have a perfect life (now...you cannot tell what happens inside a house but usually when there are troubles...there are signs).

Maybe I should not do it but I kind of blame the artist. I blame her even more after what happened to my friend. She rushed to her death. She threw away everything. How could she?

Sorry if I upset you with my post but I am looking for ways to detach myself from the story. Maybe telling it to others will help. I knew she was sick and I knew she would die but I never imagined it would affect me in such a way.

[Totenkopf]

[quote name='dst' date='22 July 2010 - 11:16 PM' timestamp='1279829801' post='64378']
Definitely slow down. I have the certainty of just this one life.

This is kind of spooky cause I have been thinking a lot of life and death this week and I don't believe in coincidences....

2 days ago my primary school math teacher's daughter died of cancer. She was just 2 years younger then me. I knew her since she was 10. She was diagnosed 2 years ago and the doctors gave her less then 1 year. She survived for 2. She was conscious till the last moment and she kept saying she wants to live. She begged everyone to help her live. I get goosebumps just by thinking at it. I was too coward to go to the funeral.I simply was unable to imagine her dead. My mother went since my teacher is also a family friend. She called me today to tell me about it. I started feeling sick and sad just by listening.

Last week, a well know Romanian singer committed suicide.She was healthy, she had a husband and a 1 or 2 years old kid. She was about to release a new album. All in all she seemed to have a perfect life (now...you cannot tell what happens inside a house but usually when there are troubles...there are signs).

Maybe I should not do it but I kind of blame the artist. I blame her even more after what happened to my friend. She rushed to her death. She threw away everything. How could she?

Sorry if I upset you with my post but I am looking for ways to detach myself from the story. Maybe telling it to others will help. I knew she was sick and I knew she would die but I never imagined it would affect me in such a way.
[/quote]

Sorry about your friend.
I guess it depends a lot on how you define "speeding up" and "slowing down" - to me knowing i'd be back on my feet for another round when the final regen timer clicks, that there's a "safety net" in place, i'd see "speeding up" as the natural thing to do, and by that I mean live "more", do more of the things I'd love to do, but don't, since they'd put my life at risk, basically letting loose and taking off the seatbelt and whatever happens happens, I won't regret it since I've still got a few extra lives to find the god-mode secret code to life

Edited July 22, 2010 by Totenkopf

[Darigan]

More then likely I'd speed up knowing theres something different on the other side I'd try to do all the things I'd like to do like skydiving...maybe even without a parachute. I've thought about wanting to be someone else a lot the last couple years and if all it took was dieing to come back as someone new I'd do what i could to get to the end as fast as I could in the most elaborate way I could think of.

[Kyphis the Bard]

If I KNEW there was going to be a new life, and another and another?
I would do everything in my power to go as slow as possible.

I am getting Married next Spring, and tomorrow my fiance and I are signing the papers to our new apartment. I may not have a job right now, but I have a well padded resume, and that is sure to change.

I love my life, with all its ups and downs, and I love the woman I am going to marry to the end of the earth and beyond. I want to spend every second I can with her.


[quote name='Burns' date='23 July 2010 - 05:22 AM' timestamp='1279822936' post='64370']
[b]slow down, a lot.[/b]

As it is, i firmly believe that this one life is all i got, and i want to do all kinds of things that sound funny and interesting just because i wouldn't want to get old and say myself 'hell, i never snorkled with sharks, i didn't ride a Monster at 180 mph, i never learned to surf etc.'.

If there was more than this lifetime, i'd take it easy, [b]do things slower[/b], more thoroughly, and probably find them more enjoyable, instead of trying it a bit and stopping once i learned how to.

[b]Live fast[/b], love hard, die young!
[/quote]
>.>

Edited July 22, 2010 by Kyphis the Bard

[Indyra]

Slow down...very slow....only because in this life i need 27 hours a day and don;t have them...take things slowly...enjoy their intensity...give more attention to details ...learn more, experience more..but if i knew i'd have another chance on life i would definitely speed up things (even more)and go wild on this one . I'm having an euphoric period at the moment with many beautiful changes.

[apophys]

Even if you do undergo reincarnation (which I highly doubt), you'll be a clean slate each time around (otherwise there would be a lot of people who remember past lives).
What's the point of adrenaline-injecting behavior if you won't remember it in your next life? When deprived of your experiences, are you even the same person?

So, even given reincarnation, I'd still "slow down", as much as possible, hoping that I can prolong my act long enough that technology will someday grant me some form of eternal consciousness (whether in this body or not).


Note: assuming no reincarnation (and assuming the general populace doesn't consider the above argument), natural selection favors those who slow down. So a majority of slow-down types among the population would be consistent with a lack of reincarnation.

[Grido]

This is a "What if?" philosophical question, i'm not implying that reincarnation is real, just asking the what if of if it was the case

[Tarquinus]

It's interesting to me how this question provokes serious, introspective responses. I suppose it's hard for an honest person to be flippant about matters life and death (though Totenkopf's response amuses me to no end). It might be an easy question to ask, but consider the analytical processes of the human mind even apprehending such a thing. By its very nature, the question invites a review of one's own life, even through the prism of "what if?", and implies there is something about our lives we would all want to change.

So to be my usual contrarian self, I have to echo Vicarious: I would do neither. I am moving at the only "speed" at which I know how to move. I am among the many who strongly doubt the existence of any afterlife of any kind, and all my favorite art, all my favorite myth, suggests I should enjoy every instant of this life while I can. That said, I have come to grips with myself, and I have learned to both accept my past and look forward to the future by honoring the fullness of the present moment.

[Fyrd Argentus]

This is one experiment history HAS done for us. Reincarnation is an eastern philosophy that leads to balance and stability in large communities, as opposed to the western philosophy of constant striving and growth in a pioneering spirit towards a goal. Cyclic vs. linear.

More interesting question to me is, what does it mean to "slow down"? After watching a wife take 5 years to die of liver disease and losing a son to psychiatric issues in the following years, I have "slowed down" a lot -- but it is a curious mixture of SELECTIVITY and fatigue that I am still trying to understand. I have more patience for some things, less for others.

There is a big difference between "not caring any more" and "doing things thoroughly and carefully".