It's a pity people and governments didn't react as strongly about climate change as they did about the coronavirus.

As a cancer survivor I live each day as if it were my last. Thats all I can do.

This is all much too doom-laden for my liking. Our very living carries with it the risk of dying, when we wake up each morning we never know if we’ll still be there at bedtime...accidents, heart attacks, seizures, knowing this doesn’t prevent us from getting on and living our lives. There is a risk that we may catch this virus in due course, but if we follow the advice we can lessen that risk, and unless we have some underlying health condition, the chances are high that we will get well again in a week or so even if we do. I’m 75 and am probably in a higher risk demographic, but I’m not panicking, just taking reasonable precautions and using my common sense. I know that I’m loved, my friends and family know that I love them, I don’t intend to start alarming them and myself by any declarations that indicate that I believe doomsday may be approaching for me or them. If my time is up, then it will be up...I hope I will be remembered fondly and trust I’ve made a difference to those lives I’ve touched, but I’m certainly not anticipating that to happen any time soon.

Wash your hands....I am sure that works better than religious hocus pocus.

My mom died at 45, I was 14. So I've known most of my life that old age is not guaranteed.My kids know I love them and how proud I am of them, I tell them all the time. I can't say I've had an easy life, but it has been a good one, I've done some stuff most people never get to do. I've raised some strong, independent, smart, fabulous daughters, and I have two amazing grands. I have stuff that will last beyond my time that says I was here. If I die tonight I know everyone will be OK. I better not die, I have a quilt to make for the grandson, and an afghan for one of the girls, and a birthday party on Sunday.

Today I sorted out the stuff in top left-hand drawer o my desk. Among the unexpected treasures are five USB flash drives from various decades., six nail clippers and eleven pairs of reading glasses. Tomorrow I will check out the flash drives.
There are also dozens of AAA batteries. I will test them all; many., many insulin syringes, a 35 mm film container and, to my delight a tiny cellophane bag of seeds of Papaper somniferous which I will sow in the spring. All this because I am on the hit list for the Coronavirus and need to put my house in order. Can't wait to see what's in the right-handed drawer!

What if some of us have been doing that all along? Not everyone is a loser.

what if what comes up is relief or happiness or contentment? what then? Not everyone fears death or being dead.

It is officially a pandemic , according to the World Health Organization , and you , your frineds , and loved ones , would have a much better chance at a longer life , if you simply left them alone , and only connected to them over the internet .

None of the above.
Death is inevitable.
No one here gets out alive.

I don't imagine or think about any of that. No pain, no guilt trips, etc. Very little worry really.

None of the above. Dead is dead. I've told my loved ones I loved them. Once gone, they will deal - "everyone" has to deal with loss. Loss is natural.

Wait . . .
Don't you all do that every day?

It’s all part of life, stuff happens, strange that someone with Zen in their title wants people to examine their emotions about future events.
Each moment to its measure

No need to wait for a pandemic.

Shall I remember for the umteenth time how I tried to give love to a dead fish?
Shall I once more appeal to my asshole child to stop being an asshole?
Shall I once again ponder how my discoveries are met with yawns?
Shall I bequeath my inventions to a species that is unworthy?
Shall I again cast my pearls before swine?

It's nice. It's nice for as long as it lasts. Except for the pain. And the mosquitoes and the spiders.
'Meaning' is just a word like 'why.' Meaningless really. As is death.
I'm not much looking forward to the dying part.
Think of your phone as a living thing. It eats electricity, and you spend your hours staring at its asshole.
There's your purpose of life.

Even before Corvid was on the loose, I had arrived at the conclusion that Mama Nature is finding ways to correct a grave mistake, and eliminate all humans. It feels like it's time. I feel at peace with the idea of no longer being. Me - or anyone else. Bye-bye !

What comes up as a result for me is thank fuck for that!

A lot less self-indulgent creatures to fuck over the backyard that I live in with my people.

And hopefully, when the pandemic is over, we can have an end to the scaremongering shit about a pandemic that will wipeout the world because it will be another of the Four Horsemen unsaddled.

The plague of the medieval Europe had a positive outcome in that the exploitation of the people by the church and feudal lords had to end because there was little labour to work. The people started to take their power back and invoice the privileged for their time.

Could be a major blow to neoliberalism which would not be a bad thing!

This post is so full of questionable assumptions, I hardly know where to begin! I question the value of any revelations/“enlightenment” based in fear; I question the propriety of fear as the reaction to the prospect of death. I do not equate death with “leaving this earth.” Unless you are a billionaire willing to pay Elon Musk to rocket your remains into space, they pretty much stay here, and your successors — mostly bacteria — will carry on your good work. “Making amends,” finding “peace,” thinking death is a “gate” rather than a wall (or compost heap), all these ideas smack of a religious world view tainted by christianity and its metaphors. If one is frightened by death now, then I wonder if one has been paying attention previously. I think everyone who lives, lives “fully” according to the time and means available, whether we judge it to be for good or ill. I DO applaud your focus on others - “friends and family” - and being aware of and addressing one’s emotions, but would hope those are bases to be touched throughout one’s life. Finally a big “no you don’t” to the preposterous claim to love, care and value people like myself, who you do not know! I think this is an assumed abstraction and find it presumptuous and insulting. I also think you mean well, and so urge you to re-examine some of these assumptions and dump the claptrap.The good stuff that is in there can stand on its own.

Thank you for this. Just keep connect 6-10 feet distant My mom died last year and in her last days said our Unitarian Universalist religion and her own humanism gave her great comfort. She was grateful she didn’t believe in an afterlife because she was done living. She found the thought of continuing on in some other form was horrible. I’m glad she had the comfort of death being final. Her pragmatism helped me get my personal effects and relationship in order. I hope not to die soon, but if I do, it’s all part of the natural order of things. No regrets.

Sounds like religious spiel to me.

Exactly the correct course to take.

Thanks for your insight.

We're all gonna die!!!

Just absolute non sense

Absolutely true in sooo many ways I just want to spend more time with them and gather family stories