Some time ago I was watching “Adventures if Rick and Morty”, the infamous “Pickle Rick” episode to be precise, at one point in the episode the therapist gives a monologue in response to Rick’s reluctance to admit he needs therapy. She (the therapist) says “I have no doubt that you would be bored senseless by therapy. The same way I'm bored when I brush my teeth and wipe my ass. Because the thing about repairing, maintaining and cleaning is... it's not an adventure. There's no way to do it so wrong you might die. It's just... Work”. I couldn’t get those words out of my mind, they struck a chord inside me, I guess.
I was also struck by two conflicting thoughts, on one hand, I am scared shitless thinking of how my life would end one day but now I am bored thinking it would be a long one, with days of nothing happening, days of waiting and just existing, making sure all body parts work, brushing my teeth and wiping my butt as the therapist says, annual visits to doctor’s office. If life is an adventure, the exciting times are crammed into a few moments and then there are days and days of an absolute lull. There’s another movie which sort of touches this subject but overall it was just a fun watch, “Death becomes her”. The plot revolves around two women who would do anything to stay young forever. I would have to touch on some of the plot points so spoilers ahead…The women ingest a serum that kills them but gives them eternal youth, so to maintain the youthful appearance they would have to take care and maintain their bodies forever. In the end, this turns out to be a nightmare, as one of the characters put it “I don’t want to live forever. I mean, it sounds good, but what am I gonna do? What if I get bored? I’ll have to watch everyone around me die. I don’t think this is right. This is not a dream. This is a nightmare!” More than that, they literally have to maintain their colour (with spray paint!) and appearance as one would do with a car, it becomes quite a chore. The point is, longer life means longer periods of maintenance and more boredom! But of course, no one wants to cut their life short (unless one has some sort of clinical affliction) …no wonder people end up in therapy, life is so confusing!
I guess with the advent of new technologies and medical advancement it is inevitable that the average life-span would increase, maybe that’s why we as a species would also need new ways to entertain ourselves or like they show in another series “Altered Carbon”, we could transfer our consciousness to another body, in essence, lose any respect or love we have for our bodies. No, I am not criticizing, maybe that would mean less time and effort to maintain our cast and focus more on the mind…I am not sure what it means, maybe it means nothing and I am rambling…anything to take me away from the mundanity of today, I guess!
Let’s end this thought with another quote from Rick,
"To live is to risk it all; otherwise you're just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you..."
