Permanence

The Permanence of Life

To understand humanity’s issue with death we must first understand humanity’s love for life. As a species, we love life; we love its excitement and its hardship. We love everything it brings to us such as love, friendship, fun, romance, heroics and everything else. We have such a desire to live that we do not know how to cope with the fact that when we die all, this might end. We do not want to face the fact that death is an end to our part. There is trouble in accepting our departure from the world of the living. In life on earth, even though faiths and religions have views on the afterlife, we still have our fears.
When Gilgamesh witnesses the death of Enkidu he searches for immortality he does not want to face the fact that he too could end up like his friend and no longer be able to enjoy this world. We must note that during Gilgamesh’s time there was no concept of a glorious afterlife thus the fear and uncertainty of death would have been far greater than during a time where an afterlife existed in religion. Never the less, when Gilgamesh reaches Utnapishtim he is meet with this response, “There is no permanence.” This statement is true in a physical sense. In the world, nothing is permanent. Utnapishtim was referring to the physical Gilgamesh and that all mortals will die. Even though individuals die humanity will continue to exist. However, I believe that we all have the potential to live on in or works and accomplishments on this earth. For example a hero like Achilles has been dead for ages however he lives on in his legend and in the memory of what he accomplished. in the same way a person may live forever in the way that the knowledge and the values we pass down to each coming generation gets built upon and passed down to new generations, we live on in the ideas we leave behind. I think that this is what Utnapishtim meant when he commented on permanence. He was talking about an earthy sense of permanence that we all die but through our lives we allow for humanities survival after our deaths.
I think that our world accepts this version of permanence, I think we are very reluctant to face physical death however the majority accepts it as inevitable. It seems that people accept that they will in fact die, look at life insurance people gamble on dying before the insurance company thinks they will to collect money for their families. Actually the idea of having life insurance is almost a way for people to feel that once they die they will still have a connection to this world that they will still be able to affect the world of the living even when they have long departed from it. In this way they are able to exist in the lives of the people who have inherited this money. And through them they live on. This is an example of how Utnapishtim view on permanence is apparent in the modern world. Although we die, we are all looking for ways to survive through others. I think these ideas of permanence and trying to live on give humanity a reason for life. To the individual the idea of having his/or her own existence terminated is almost unfathomable. What does it mean to not existing? I myself have wonder why we pursue life when all there is waiting for us is death. Six or seven years ago I felt very frightened about death and its repercussions; I looked to religion and found comfort in its ideas of living a good honorable life and the rewards that follow in the afterlife. I still believe this but I also believe that the purpose of life or rather what keeps us going in life is the idea of how will I be remembered. Everyone wants to have a good life one that is fun and worthwhile; but one that has purpose a life that is worth living to those that come after us. I find comfort in the idea that I will be remembered; this is the very reason why I strive to live to a certain code. A large portion of humanity also feels this way whether it is mother or father raising their children or a humanitarian helping others they have made a difference and one that will carry them on into time. They may die but they will be carried on through their work. I believe this is why people have no problem living with death on the horizon, because they have hope of living through others; vicariously. Because of our religious views and ideas of affecting the world after we have gone humanity as come to better terms with death than those of Gilgamesh’s time. We no longer weep at the realization that we all must die like Gilgamesh did. We have a created a certain order with our ideas of life after death. A belief that if we live well no matter what we will live on either in some sort of heavenly rest or in the people we influence or possibly both. We better acknowledge an individual's life as not being permanent while affirming that humanities permanence lies with the passing of ideas through generations, this allows us to accept our mortality and live life to its potential.