Reply #56: The goal of all life is death.

[ozone_man]

Sigmund Freud. Sounds grim doesn't it? I never thought of it that way exactly. No one really wants to die, but we have to eventually. It's the "goal" of all life.

Hiking in Alaska a few years ago, I passed several salmon streams, where the salmon had stopped feeding in the salt water and were living off of their bodies, literally consuming them in the process of running upstream and spawning. They had another goal certainly (spawning), soon to be followed by death. And then supplying food for the coastal grizzlies and bald eagles. Made me contemplate my own mortality. Death is peace, an end, and a beginning for new life. But not an afterlife. Live life the fullest we can, because we don't always have control over the ending. And no encore. :)