if i DIE now, would it matter HOW i LIVED?

Question

or if you do, would it matter how you lived if it's ALL OVER...
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wow... all the answers are great...
it's giving me a headache to choose the best answer...
there are great one liners from omnisiris, consaul and hadenough. and long thughtful answers from JAppleseed, aint your momma, blondesweetsassy, bren, fire&ice, shahbarak, psychicCat, Valac gypsy and many more....
Hope i can decide on this fairly and with all my heart and soul
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Answer 1

Of course it MATTERS! Haven't you ever seen "It's a Wonderful Life?" The trouble is, in the US and western culture, we have a heavy tendency to measure everything in terms of such tangible things - dollars, homes, or even "how many" people you made happy. But "meaning" or "what matters" is qualitative - and that's the way it matters. Just that fact that you are here and touch the lives around you and get to be here enjoying life "matters." Think of the people that matter to you. Don't you think you matter to someone? If you died, the entire world would be different. You would be missed. And even what you did before you died would still matter because people around you would be different. Different things would happen. If the Mona Lisa had one small paint stroke missing, it would be a different painting. Even if "it's all over" the time that you are here matters. Before us, there were the Greeks, Romans, African cultures living, loving, carrying on life. When you imagine those places, seeing ruins, does it not matter that they were there? Societies gone are still treasures of our Universe. They're pretty darn rare if you think of it on a universe scale.

Another thing that I think often trips us all up around what matters is that MOST of the time, we can't even know WHY what we do matters. You can't see what might happen in the future because of you. It may be a smile that you didn't think about that brightened at parent's day and they didn't hit their child and the child becomes a better person. You can't KNOW what matters. You can only know that caring and compassion tend to lead toward better outcomes and thoughtlessness and menace tends to lead toward poor ones.
What will happen you can't say because the future is always uncertain.

It matters that you asked this question because I have the joy of getting to answer it. If you weren't here or you didn't care, I wouldn't get that opportunity. And this is something I'm struggling with as well. But can we look into our heart of hearts and say honestly that what we do does not matter?

Answer 2

It would matter how I lived if I were to die now. As it does for my loved ones, my life is an integral part of those of whom would be left behind. How I treated them, how I approached others and was kind and considerate, or even of the things I did to bring forth small changes to the better would all, I am sure, be discussed around my urn. They would remember jokes and pranks, tears, from childhood to adulthood, they would recall details of when I served my nation in the military, or when I played on championship sports teams or even losing ones. They would remember how much I loved them and how I loved them, and why I loved them. Yes, my friend, it does matter how we live because it is our essence, it is who we are in the end that counts to others. Those memories can be great ones or ones that some most likely would unfortunately want to forget--but our legacies do matter to others. How we affect one another does matter, all the way to the grave.

Answer 3

Yes, for a lot of different reasons.

1. How we live affects what kind of life we live.

2. How we live can affect the earth.

3. How we live can affect our relations with coworkers, with family, with friends. It can even determine what kind of friends we have.

4. It affects our health.

How we live today can stay in the memories of other people until those people are gone. Sometimes those memories are passed down for generations. Sometimes the littlest thing can mean so much. It can cause a death or save a life..so some of the things we do and the choices we make can change a life forever.

That is why It is true when people say that it doesn't matter how you died, but how you lived.

Answer 4

I think this is a terrific question to ask yourself while your still alive. Sometimes we seem to throw away opportunities to live life to (its/our) full potential, as if we have endless amount of time or chances.

Sometimes we can substantially enrich our lives by imagining that we have lived this day, in this way, once before, and we have the unique opportunity to relive it and make changes for the better.

Once we die...I'm not sure how to answer. Of course from different spiritual/religious/philosophical perspectives you can get an array of answers...from it matters absolutely to not at all, you lived your life as you could live your life...

If you were to ask my brain, I would probably tend toward the latter possibility. If you were to ask my heart, I would say that there will be a comprehensive accounting at the Pearly Gates with Jimmy Stewart waiting for me... (seriously).

Answer 5

Oh,sure it would!It does matter how you live.Not because of whether you will go to heaven or hell when you die (I don't believe in that).
We die when our names and our memory fade away,and not when our heart and brain stop functioning ,and people will remember just what we do in our lives,how we live,and our memory will last as long as how great our life was before we pass away.


PS: if YOU died now,I would really miss you around here,your questions are the BEST!And I'm sure I'm not alone here who'd miss you =)

Answer 6

It would matter to both you and the ones you left behind. I looked death in the eyes several times through my family as they lay their dying. Watching the pain, the suffering, fear and regret of things done and left undone, things said and things left unsaid. With life you take many things for granted(especially whats truly important) in death or just before death you know whats truely important and try to make right any wrong. I had once looked death in the eye myself and I tell you within a few seconds thousands of memories flashed through my eyes, all i thought about was what I did wrong in life and how I should've done things better. I'll tell you it changed my life, now My priorities are different family come first, friends second, my health third, job, etc. So to answer your question it would matter if you died to people who loved you and hated you, each person who you deal with on a regular basis, will be affected for good or bad maybe both but still affected. Yes, it would matter to me if I die because I love life and I wish to be here longer so that I can spend more moments with my family and friends. You know the kind that will last forever, a childs innocent eyes starring up at you full of love, their first steps, your aunts wedding, your first nephew, etc.

Answer 7

It depends on the person. If you are happy with who you are then it probably would not matter but, If you still have things you would either like to do or, quit doing then it would seem you hadn't for-filled your own happiness no matter what your personal religious views are. I know i wouldn't want to go before I get to do everything I want! And I do believe that it matters who we were after we are gone does anyone really wanna be known as the person who's better off dead!

Answer 8

Every life matters infinitely, and how even more so. It's unfortunate that so many who have existed have never really lived. If like an angel your whisper over a blade of grass said, "Live", none of your life has been in vain, and dying will not end it. I have seen many whispers and shouts, but few like yours, which not only say live, but also grow. If the next moment I die, I hope someone will also say that of me.

Answer 9

I believe so. In past years pursuing Green issues I used to casually ask customers in shops I frequented whether it mattered to them if the world ended immediately after they died. Many said it didn't but had second thoughts when I said "Really?"; so basically the future mattered to all of them. We are embedded in our species and our world. By merely living we have an investment in the future of humanity, and the world as we've known it, even beyond our own direct descendants - just as we are the inheritors of life from those who lived before us. But in our ephemeral commercalised "culture" this is only apparent to most people when they are challenged to think about it. That's why people are often far more deeply disturbed than they think, by "development" that destroys familiar landmarks etc. It is their own lives destroyed, too - and a sense of continuity. And the same holds true for future destructions, which the cult of consumerist "progress" implies are inevitable. I think it's why so many feel impotent, and therefor do not act on their real values. The Persians believed our spirits stay warm on the earth while we and the work of our hands are valued and remembered - and when they are not, the spirits drift like mist to to shiver and fragment on the cold side of the moon. It seems many of us are there already.

Answer 10

Yes it does, because if you live they way you want and fulfill what you set out to do, then you can clearly say that life has given you the opportunity to make your own existence.
Also never forget that people who die have leave behind a legacy, it's how you live that makes that legacy.
Once more our lives are like chain reactions, meaning that we unknowingly affect more lives then we think we do, either directly or indirectly.