If I am to break the current level of human lifespan as we know it and live a much longer life, I would study a different discipline every decade and would work in a different field every couple of years. I would become a doctor at one point of my life, an engineer at another point, a scientist, an artist, a dancer and a singer, a taxi driver and a bar tender, ..etc. The options are endless and pretty exciting each at its merits. I would write uncountable novels and millions of blog posts!

I am trying to entertain the idea of living for a long long life in this blog post. It is something that is not totally a “science fiction” because science is pretty close to end aging, and it is something that I started addressing in my second novel “Janneh 3ala al ard (heaven on earth)”. It is a big issues and one that carries many possibilities and opens a wide door for imagination.

So going back to the same line of thought from the first paragraph and raising the questions people usually come up with when faced with such idea. Would I get bored from living too long?

Maybe in some days I would. Same as in the intervals some of us go through in our current life spans. There are people who are in their twenties and already bored of their lives, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into carrying such boredom with them for their entire life. There is a wide range of excitement in life, and if at one point, everything appear blank, at another point anything would appear exciting.

There is just such freedom in breaking out from death. One that doesn’t necessarily turn life meaningless but more of an opportunity to relax, enjoy what hits your door, and contribute in making things better and better. Prophet Mohammed said “Work for your earthly life as if you are going to live forever, and for your eternal life as if you are going to die tomorrow”. Unfortunately most people do ignore the first part and focus on the second one as they realize how short their lives currently are. But hey, science is about to change that, and working for our earthly lives as if we are going to live forever would be literally translated as it is! So what would you do?

Age would be meaningless

I have always followed the policy of not taking age seriously. As they say, it is just a number. I learnt not to restrict myself to other people’s expectations of the code of behavior for my age. I can be a child, and an old man at the same time, and I can drop all of what I have learnt in life and start all over again with something new if I find interest in it. I grew a passion of trying new things. Ironically I would say that such passion was enticed by my fear of death and thus unconsciously wanting to live my life fully. But would I develop such passion if death was never an option? Maybe yes, and maybe not!

I am enjoying life as it is not, and in the back of my mind,  I have already expanded my span of life. Be it a delusional sense of self protection, or an exaggerated optimism and faith in science, I would say that I am working on my earthly life as if I am living forever.

A kind of contradiction that I feel in my previous lines. Living life fully for fearing death, and then extracting the death option from my life. Ending up with living life fully for an indefinite amount of time. In truth, I am a very laid back person. I would always want to create something, but I am not hard on myself to do so in a short amount of time, and thus if I feel like enjoying my life, being lazy, spoiled, and pampered for a good amount of time, then be it. Because it doesn’t matter and does matter at the same time, and because life is meaningless and full of meanings at the same time.

Anyhow, with a very long lifespan, there would always be a possibility for some people to get stuck in the same routine/job for a longer time. For instance, those who have been doing the same job for 20 years and head for retirement may very well be doing the same job for 200 years with no change in the horizon. The fear of change would be still carried on with us as human beings, or would it change as our culture progress?

In another line of thought, one would build a fortune in a set amount of years of work. Lets say for example after 100 years of working anyone should be well off and thus be able to do his/her own thing, right? One would relax and enjoy life for another 200 or 300 years and then if not being wise enough to manage that fortune, one would find himself homeless at one point of the extended lifespan. Maybe that won’t be an option then and life as we know would take a totally different form.

All in all, it is exciting thinking in those lines, and it is exciting being alive. I would love to see read for other bloggers own imaginations of what would you do if your lifespan get extended to 1000 years? Please feel free to tag yourself and be wild in your imagination!  It would set you free!