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"Is It Worth It To Live Fast & Die Young?"

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Is it worth it?

I've never been allowed to ride a motorcycle after my uncle decided to do well over 100mph in a 30mph zone and had a head on smash with a car and was found nearly 100 metres further down the road with nearly every bone in his body broken.

The thrill of the TT races must be uncomparable to anything else but this accident makes me wonder if it's worth it.

Personally I've driven at nearly 140mph on a deserted motorway at night and afterwards been shocked to think what would have happened if one of my tyres had blown or I'd lost control of my car.

The thrill at the time was surreal but with hindsight I wouldn't do it again.

Maybe I've grown more conservative as I've grown older but what do you think?

Does the thrill and adrenelin rush of the danger outweigh your "common sense" and you go for it or do you step back to weight up the options before deciding whether to go for it or not?

When I say "fate" I think I mean it in a genetic sense rather than a spiritual sense. Our genes dictate our fate [kind of thing].

Stuff like: at school I was naturally good at sports, whereas my best friend was a complete clutz with two left feet. That's not about choice, it's fixed. That kind of thing extends into all areas of life, so to my mind it becomes almost like fate.

Black Glove wrote:
> Then again, if fate decrees


I don't agree with that. Fate doesn't exist - IMO. If it does, then it means you're not making any choices for yourself, as your life is already planned out. This is bordering on a conversation out of The Matirx.

we'd be dead either way, but it doesn't matter, because even if we think life is short.. it doesn't matter if we get to live a bit longer.. what really matters is what we did to make every moment worth it during that short life. If you really do what it takes to live your life to the fullest at this moment, then you can never die with regrets. Yes, maybe death will come now or in a few hours, but also maybe something really beautiful from this life could happen now or in a few hours. Maybe I can fall in love, maybe I'll go to India, maybe they'll come up with a treatment for cancer, I mean, who knows ? So, thinking about the future is thinking about the potential of something that may or may not happen (and usually it ends up not happening), and I prefer to live each moment by itself.

I am all for living fast. I just can't believe I was lucky enough to survive into my 40s. It's when you watch someone die and see a dead body up close and personal that you get a spark of intuition, a revelation if you will, about how fragile we are as beings and how meaningless everything is.

Life can be snuffed out in an instant. A meteorite could plunge through my ceiling right now as I'm typing this, a freak earthquake could hit Bristol, a piece of fuselage could squish me, I could answer my front door in 6 hours and get stabbed to death by a postal postie, or a bus could go out of control and drive straight into my living room.

If any of those happened tomorrow I would really, really regret it (if I had time to) if I'd chosen to live my life as a monk. I'd probably die with a smile on my face, (again if I had time to form a smile) knowing that I've lived a very full life.

I think it would be quite normal to regret leaving behind loved ones, or panic about how they would cope, but for thousands of years life has continued regardless, so I don't worry about it. Life goes on. What's fascinating is that if I didn't have time for regrets just before my death, it wouldn't matter what kind of life I'd led, because I'd be dead either way.

homosh wrote:
> the hell with common sense. it's pointless to be carefull about
> the future because it doesn't really exist.

Perhaps the quickest way to make the future not exist is to say "the hell with common sense".

I hear what you're saying, but I know and I'm sure you know that after one heartbeat will come another, and another, and tomorrow the sun will rise. Ala kazam: le futur.

the hell with common sense. it's pointless to be carefull about the future because it doesn't really exist. what we call "future" is only our hopes and expectations for what we think is going to happen based on our experience in the past. You can do all the thinking and all the planning, but what you "think" is going to be good for you is never the best thing that's going to happen to you. There is more to life than common sense.

No to living fast and dieing young. Yes to not being afraid to try things (within reason) even if they involve some consequence.

It's all about weighing up the consequences and asking yourself if you can live with them (plus, if you're married or connected to people then you need to ask is it fair on them).

I like to live fat - in the sense that I try (try) to fill my time doing something constructive. What you doin' on here then? - Oh, cynical.

I'd rather live slow and die old - gain knowledge, wisdom, use my brain, see things, rather than throw myself pell-mell into brainless physical risks.
The reckless end up a wreck. Ask Eddie Kidd. Sorry Eddie.
Then again, if fate decrees that you are an adrenalin junker by nature then what can you do. Evel Knievel lives, though he got out before he broke every bone in his body for a second time.

No, it's all about balance.