What Would Change If You Knew You Were Going to Live Forever?
How the certainty of eternity might change the way we see ordinary life
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My youngest daughter is sixteen this year, and just writing that sentence feels strange.
For years, our family life has been shaped by the ordinary rhythms of having children at home. School runs, packed lunches, “Have you done your homework?” and lifts to clubs and activities. The endless cycle of getting everyone where they need to be on time.
For much of that time, those things felt like obligations.
The school run was simply something that had to be done. The early mornings were something to get through, and the routines of family life were the background noise of everyday existence.
Yet something has begun to change.
Both my wife and I are increasingly aware that we are entering a new phase of family life. In just a couple of years, our children will leave school. They may go to university, start work, or begin building their own lives.
The routines that have shaped our days for so long will gradually disappear, and suddenly, the ordinary things feel different.
A conversation in the kitchen. A journey in the car. A walk together. Even the school run takes on a new significance because we know there are not that many left.
The strange thing is that nothing has changed about those moments themselves; they have always been valuable. We simply did not always recognise it.
Perhaps this is one of the great challenges of being human. We often only appreciate something fully when we realise it is temporary.
And that raises a much bigger question.
What would change if you knew you were going to live forever?
