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What Matters At The End Of Your Life

I feel that what matters at the end of your life is how much you loved.

There are some immediate thoughts that come to my mind regarding the statement above.

1. Is it the only thing that matters at the end of your life?
2. Why not the opposite of loving – being indifferent?
3. Loving what?

Before going through these thoughts, I’ll define the act of loving as the act of giving yourself to someone or something for the sake of delight in the act itself rather than for the sake of something in return. This is a brief definition and may be revised, but what I have in mind is something like this. For now, I think this is good enough.

Now I’ll go through each thought.

1. Is it the only thing that matters at the end of your life?
Maybe this is not the only thing that matters at the end of your life. However, it seems to me that other things that would count as what matters are closely related.

For example… living a happy life matters? I reckon loving is a pretty good way to live a happy life, because you will be delighted from the act of loving. If you practice the act of loving everyday, your life will be full of delight. That sounds like a happy life to me.

How about living a meaningful life? Doing something meaningful important matters in your life. Again, the act of loving seems to be a big motivator for doing something meaningful, because it’s how you give yourself to someone or something, believing in that person or that thing.

These are only two examples and I can’t even think of things that matter and have no connection with the act of loving. Any thoughts?

2. Why not the opposite of loving – being indifferent?
I have a rhetorical answer to this one. Do I want to say, at the last day of my life, “I kept my poker face for my entire life. I’ve been totally indifferent to everything. I didn’t love anything at all. For these reasons, my life was worth living than a possible life of mine in which I loved a lot”?

Nay.

3. Loving what?

I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I love women. I love food. I love friends who inspire me. I love finding the beauty in unexpected places. I love reading books. I love dancing. I love my life. There are a lot of people, things, and places I love.

But what if I loved something immoral or someone questionable? What if I loved the act of harming people? Wait a second. I clearly don’t love people in that case when you consider it objectively, even though I may love the act of harming people itself. So, this kind of love probably limits my love for people and things – that doesn’t sound good to me, if what matters is how much you loved, because you could love more if you abandoned your love for the act of harming people.

So, some things are good to love, and some things are not so good to love – that’s what I’m trying to get at here. But when it comes to people – perhaps that’s a different story. Everyone needs to be loved.

How much are you going to love in your life? The thing is, you can choose to love no matter what.