They believe that the things they love and strive for, in some ultimate accounting, matter, and will not be lost in the winds of time. I do not mean the large goals, I mean the small ones: that the time we spend hugging our kids means at least as much as the time we spend "saving the planet".
I cannot imagine how anyone could feel that a remote and hypothetical "ultimate accounting" means more than the immediate and tangible accounting that comes from our own struggle, in ways large and small to make our families, communities, and world better places. It simply makes no sense to me.
I know full well that I, my children, and my children's children will someday be lost in the winds of time. The prospect does not bother me at all. Do you honestly think that I derive less meaning from hugging my children than those who convince themselves that, because they want it to be so, they will spend eternity together, sitting up in the clouds wreathed in halos?
I find the whole idea really, truly, incomprehensible. |
