In this blog post, I will ask the question, “What should I do now so that I won’t regret it in the face of death?” and think about the essence of life and the attitude to live in the present.
Life has a beginning, so it has an end. Death comes to us all, whether we come early or late. According to the syllogism learned in Kijewetter logic, “Julius Caesar is a human being. Human beings die. Therefore, Caesar dies.”
Death is fair in that it strikes all lives equally, whether they are successful or unsuccessful, but it is unfair in that it is a great blow to everyone who survives. However, there is no reason not to live up to one’s potential just because death exists. Life flows by, but we are only given one life. My position is that we should live life to the fullest.
There is a line in the American drama “One Tree Hill” that says, “Every song ends. Is that any reason not to enjoy the music?” In other words, just because you know how it ends doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it in the first place. You can enjoy the good things about the beginning and the middle before you reach the end. “Songs end.” In other words, good things end, and ultimately we will die. This is an unavoidable reality of life. However, the meaning of “there is no reason not to enjoy music” is that life is not meaningless. You don’t have to act like a dead person just because your life is over. The above quote comes to me as a reminder to enjoy life with endless challenges, even if everything in life is over.
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” offers three interpretations of Ivan Ilyich’s life: the perspective of those who look at the dead, Ivan Ilyich’s actual life, and Ivan Ilyich’s life as an object of reflection.
In life, we will surely lose our relatives and family members. When I was a freshman in college, I had to face the deaths of my maternal grandfather and grandmother within a month. When I heard the news of the death of Ivan Ilyich, my colleagues and family members only thought of their own convenience and interests. Although the expression is a bit exaggerated, the fact that some of it was true struck me. When I first heard the news that my maternal grandfather had passed away during the midterm exam period, sadness rushed into my heart, but on the other hand, I thought, “Why now?” As shown in this novel, we can see that human nature is for one’s own benefit. People are busy with their own lives. Similarly, the fact that we have to keep track of the anniversary of the death of a loved one is more of an inconvenience than a way to mourn the deceased. This is not to say that keeping the deceased in mind and remembering them is a bad thing. It is just that having to hold a memorial service on the anniversary of the death of a loved one is a nuisance as a student. Even if the deceased was a person who was important to us, the deceased is the deceased. Since the deceased cannot take care of the living and life continues, we must take responsibility for our own lives.
A memorial service for the Sewol ferry disaster was held on April 16. News and television broadcasts featured interviews with survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster. Kim Dong-soo, a survivor of the Sewol ferry disaster who appeared on MBC News, said, “How can I forget what happened? When I see the students, I think of them, and when I look out the window, I think of the children who were there. How can I forget?” Kim Dong-soo is a truck driver who was called the “hero in blue overalls” for rescuing about 20 students during the Sewol ferry disaster. If you have experienced the death of someone you know or someone you care about, it will be difficult to forget that death due to the shock and trauma it causes. But the past is the past, and the right choice is to live in the present and start anew.
Ivan Ilyich was sensitive to the current trends, obsessed with success, and focused on maintaining the dignity that society recognized. Life is not only about thinking about its meaning and why we should live, but also about how we should live. In English, the present is “present,” which means gift, and this moment is a gift given to us. Just as gifts are meant to be happily accepted, I believe that we should not be bound by the past or obsessed with it, and we should enjoy the present moment to the fullest without worrying too much about the future, which we do not know when we will die. There are three types of people who live their lives. Some people live in the past, while others live in the present moment, and others live worrying about the future. The first group cannot protect and develop their lives, and the third group inevitably misses the little things that life offers. I think the meaning of life is to savor the small opportunities that life gives us and to experience a sense of accomplishment. Just as the only way to survive when the ice is breaking is to walk faster, I think that even if life throws us some disappointments, we should overcome them with hope. However, I think it is important to live a life that you truly want and find meaningful, rather than the life that society expects and recognizes, like Ivan Ilyich.
Ivan Ilyich was more tormented by his regrets about his life in the face of death. However, I, who have the motto “Everything happens for a reason,” make it a rule to live my life without regret or remorse. Of course, I can make “mistakes” in life and become discouraged because of them. However, mistakes are the result of my efforts, and they shape my identity and make me who I am today. Therefore, there is no mistake in my dictionary, just like the famous quote by Napoleon, “In my dictionary, there is no such thing as impossible.” When the day comes to end one’s life, it is the way, the duty, and the right to live a meaningful and valuable life without regret, so that one would want to look back on one’s life and relive it once again.
