Would you like to have your rate of physical aging slowed by a factor of thirty so as to give you a life expectancy of about 2000 years? How hard would it be to outlive and lose each person you grew close to? If you lived a greatly lengthened life, would you experience so much that you’d soon feel surrounded by children? Would you be able to adjust to the dramatic social changes? Would you soon grow jaded feeling there was nothing interesting left? Does feeling that life is too short increase the intensity and passion of it in a desirable way?
Ahh, one of the questions every D&D player or fantasy novel reader asks themselves; “What would it be like to be an elf?”. I guess that I wouldn’t mind doing this. I think now it would be a bit easier for me to live for 2000 years as compared if I did this a 1000 years ago or even just half a century ago. At this point in time, I have a chance (barely) of actually making it alive for 2000 years. The hardest part would be all of the friends and family that I would loose throughout the years. Especially the way and time it takes me to get over people now, if I lived for a long time, most of that time would be in depression and mourning. It would be what Dr. Who goes through with each companion I suppose. I think that I would do a Lesast/Vampire Chronicles and just bury or hid myself away centuries at a time until something from the continuing outside world awakens me and pull me back into the current civilization. I suppose I would feel somewhat patronizing towards the future people. More things change, more things stay the same. There would be new things to learn, but I would have to be patient with people catching up to all the experiences that I have already had. I would have to learn to take pleasure in watching them have new experiences; to live through others in a way. I would also need to be even more patient waiting for interesting things to happen to me. Maybe like Beezus in Dragon ball. I know, reference, but I’m tired and it’s the only thing I can think of right now. Realizing how short our lives are should make me feel more intense and passionate about life, but my depression really keeps me down. Knowing how much time I’ve wasted of my life and let opportunities pass me by just makes me even more depressed. Maybe once I’m six feet in the ground, I’ll appreciate the opportunity that is life
