X-Message-Number: 19015
From: "Steven Lacher" <>
Subject: More on "that feeling".....
Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 06:52:14 -0400

First off, I want to say thanks to Rudi, Mike, Robert, and anyone else who
expressed their agreement with or appreciation of my post before.

It's funny, when I first signed up, I was warned that Cryonet was sometimes
rather a contentious place, filled with people who weren't always going to
say nice things about Alcor, or each other.  (To the credit of the person
who told me this, they still recommended I sign up for Cryonet, saying it's
one of the best net resources for us cryonicists!) I've actually found that
Cryonet is anything but what they described to me.  I can't begin to tell
you how often I appreciate this list.

In any case, now onto the meat of my point.  About a month or so after I got
my bracelet, I was driving to work and was struck by this overwhelming
revelation, almost an epiphany.  (I know, another religious term from an
atheist!)

Here's what the revelation was: So many things crappy little bad things
happen to you in the space of a given day - you get stuck in traffic, you
stub your toe in the dark looking for your shoes, your boss says something
callous to you, etc. etc. etc. And you COULD get annoyed, depressed,
troubled by these things.

But there's this one fact, this one overwhelming thing, which mitigates just
about anything which is negative in your life.  The fact is: LIFE is GOOD.
Being alive, able to feel sunlight on your face, smell honeysuckle on a warm
breeze, hear babies laughing, or birds singing - all these things are
beautifully magnificent, beyond measure.

The sheer pleasure of being a living thing cancels out any petty greivances
which can bog you down.

I find this especially true as a cryonicist.  I have no faith in anything,
but I don't need to seek comfort or explanations for the bad things that
happen to me or anyone else in this world.  To me, the ability to just BE,
and to experience sensation is joyous.  Being alive feels good!  I don't
need any outside agency or entity to affirm that.

I'll admit, sometimes it's an idea and an ideal I forget.  I let my job
concerns or other little life troubles sometimes weigh me down.  But then
I'll just suddenly remember how great it is just to EXIST, and all those
feelings just vanish.

Now lots of people have asked me, "What happens when you get revived after
your suspension, and.....
... all your friends/family are dead?
... the world's totally different from what you know?
.... you have to start over from scratch, financially, in your career,
etc.?"

My answer to all these things is that it doesn't matter - I'll be ALIVE!
Given the choice between alive and not, it's an easy binary.  I can make new
friends, love new people, and everything else is just marginal.  And hey,
I'll know all of you folks, right?

Thanks for reading, and long life!
--Steven Lacher, Alcor member A-1865

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