Overstaying Your Welcome - From Hell to Hemlock

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and the idiot with a leafblower who is working right outside my window as I write this:

People seem to be obsessed with longevity, but they don't seem to speak too much about the quality of life. I believe that it's not how long you live, but how well you've lived that is most important.

Life, per se, is merely an expanse of time, whether a blessing or a curse. A combination of variables (both circumstantial and controllable) define the quality of life. If I am in agony, I see no value in living (except based upon the optimistic premise that something will happen to improve the quality of my existence, or perhaps based upon the romantically unselfish but pompous notion that it is important to others that I continue to live). If I am enjoying my life, I would like for it never to have to end.

Some of the signs that have begun to overstay your welcome in this world are these:

• You are in a constant state of physical or psychic pain;
• You do not believe a single thing that anybody says to you -- either because you believe that they are lying, or because you believe that they simply don't know what they are talking about;
• You feel completely indifferent about the prospect of hurting another person, or of destroying his or her life;
• You feel certain that all of your best experiences are behind you;
• Your fears continually overshadow your faith.

The taking of your own life is considered to be a criminal act in western cultures, but there is little that any law enforcement agency can do in terms of punishing you for suicide (literally the murder of the self). Many view suicide as a crime against God, as well. But then there's an irreconcilable paradox there that does not warrant discussing.

If someone whom you know or care about should decide that he has overstayed his welcome, and chooses to depart, try to hold your anger and resentment in check and simply mourn the loss. It seems to me that life should not be a sentence to be served, but a time to learn and love and grow...for those who see life as a curse and not as a gift, what right do we have, as outsiders to their innermost torments, to enforce a life sentence upon them? Isn't it every prisoner's duty to escape?

For some of the more sanctimonious and self-righteous among us, what ever happened to the notion of "Judge ye not, lest ye be judged?"

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

In loving memory of Daniel


*Follow DOUGLAS CASTLE on TWITTER - http://twitter.com/douglascastle
*Follow DOUGLAS CASTLE on THE NATIONAL NETWORKER - http://twitter.com/TNNW_BUZZWORKS

Douglas Castle's Secret Blog Links!
DOUGLAS CASTLE
BRAINTENANCE
HUMANITAS MAXIMUS
DOUGLAS CASTLE'S INTERNAL ENERGY PLUS
THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE
THE GLOBAL FUTURIST
TAKING COMMAND!
THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter

Subscribe to The NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and the BLUE TUESDAY REPORT free.