Imagine a life that had no end, no finale, to punctuate the symphony that was your accomplishments. What would be the motivation to accomplish anything armed with the knowledge that you would never die, never run out of time to do all the things you wanted to do?
The truth is many of us would continue to put those things off and habitually say that we would get to it later. How would the beauty of the world have meaning if we had seen it before, whether that was 10, 100, or 1000 years earlier?
One of my favorite quotes on this topic comes from the movie Troy. When speaking with Briseis, Achilles gives her some insight into the lives of the immortals:
"The Gods envy us. They envy us because we are mortal."
The thought that an immortal, with all the power, wisdom, and omniscience that they possess could envy a mere mortal is astounding. In many ways it makes sense though; they would live on year after year. In their eyes our miracles would be commonplace and everything we see as unique would be repetition.
I guess the lesson I am trying to get at today is that we should all think twice about how great an immortal life would be lest the very things that define our human nature would be lost.
If honestly given the opportunity for immortality I wonder if I'd take it. To be immortal is definitely to be godlike and that is a huge draw for Me.... to not have fear of death or worry about time would be amazing. I can't pretend the vanity in Me wouldn't jump at the chance to honestly be worshiped as an immortal would be extremely enticing. However, to watch those I love die over and over again... to be alone in the world for all eternity doesn't at all appeal to Me. Life is precious, a gift. Each moment is worth something and each moment is beautiful in it's own way because we are mortal. We never know when our time is up.... live each moment as the art it is.
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