Through his ponderings at the home of Kalypso, Odysseus discovers the most profound of realities. He is given the option to marry Kalypso, an offer that guarantees an eternity of riches, beauty and most tempting of all…life. Holding his mortality sacred, Odysseus refuses on the grounds that all he longs for is to be reunited with faithful Penelope and long-lost Telemachos, tell his story, and live the rest of his life in peace.From the oldest recorded civilization to every church that exists today, there is not a single religion that is without some way to cheat death. One of the major functions of religion is to ensure us that we are not the only thing we truly are...mortal. Immortality, at least in the plane that we experience, has always been a negative thing. As Achilles puts it “I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man…than to be a king over all the perished dead.” Bitter and violent, the folklorist vampire is unable to find rest. Burdened with the curse of immortality, they must doom other souls in order to stay alive, a way of life that can only lead to contempt for oneself and un-fulfillment. In the novel Tuck Everlasting a family is cursed to see the death of all their fiends and loved ones. In the movie Dogma two angels condemned to earth desperately seek a way back to home. When a human gains immortality, it is eventually regarded as a curse, not to mention what happens to these poor souls at the end of the world.Of course we cannot truly obtain immortality. There is no, nor will there ever be a way for human beings to live forever. Although morbid and pessimistic this statement may seem, when truly contemplated it is in truth quite the opposite. Eternity portrays unproductiveness. The essence of life is that there is a death. If there was no time limit, where is the motivation? The simple fact that any day could be the last is what makes life exciting and worth living. ...
