Was still feeling frustrated by my manager acting belligerent in a meeting a few weeks ago. I was just thinking about it as I lie in bed instead of sleeping. Then I remembered that we’ll all be forgotten some day. Some people get freaked out by that, which I understand, but it gives me comfort. Every now and again, a thought about a past time where I did something embarrassing or said something stupid bubbles up from my subconscious, I remind myself that I’m the last person in the universe that still has that memory and feel no residual negative feelings. It takes all the emotion away from it, leaving just a thought that floats by.
Sometimes people are assholes at work. They get anxious and stressed out, but they don’t realize that it’s all make believe. We’re all pretending that what we’re doing matters and is of significant importance. When in reality, whether the project is released or not, whether the company succeeds or fails, it will have no lasting effect on the world. Either way, everything will keep going as it was. Everything that we’re working on that we think is so important will be forgotten in a 100 years, if that.
It’s a coping strategy against the fear of death, because if what we’re doing is important then we can cheat death by leaving something behind that will outlast our frail, mortal bodies. Because if what we did is forgotten, when all we are is an old photograph that our children’s children’s children keep at the bottom of a keepsake box, when the picture eventually fades and we too are forgotten, then what was the point of it all?
