On a Quite Depressing Subject

It seems that humanity is obsessed with permanence, perhaps because everything, including life itself, is temporary. Shelley demonstrates the temporality of man’s creations in “Ozymandius,” where he describes the decrepit remains of King Ozymandius’ “great works” half-buried in a wasteland. Walls will crumble, empires will fall, and artwork will disintegrate. There is, however, one exception to this notion of impermanence: death. Death is our only guarantee; it allows no exceptions, cannot be bought off, and does not supply trial runs. It is mysterious and frightening because death is a permanent change that we are blindly thrust into.
Death even frightens Gilgamesh, the incomparable Sumerian demigod; after his lover, Enkidu, dies, Gilgamesh becomes aware of his own mortality and fears his impending death. While in mourning for Enkidu he cries: “Despair is in my heart. What my brother is now, that shall I be when I am dead. Because I am afraid of death I will... find Utnapishtim...” (97). Thus, Gilgamesh resolves to seek out his immortal father, Utnapishtim, in search of eternal life. However, at the end of the quest, Utnapishtem simply tells Gilgamesh, “There is no permanence” (106). Gilgamesh must accept that one cannot be immortal because nothing lasts forever. Physical destruction is inevitable for everyone and everything on earth.
One may ask how we go about our daily business with our doom looming in the back of our minds. However, there is no one answer to this question because everyone copes differently with the knowledge of death. When we are young we generally cannot fathom our demise because death does not seem real; some people spend their whole lives ignoring the thought of death so they don’t have to confront fear. Others find comfort in religion. One of the most luring aspects of a faith is its proposition of an afterlife; death seems so much less daunting if we know what awaits us. Most of us simply choose to make our lives satisfying, regardless of their fleetingness; some people have a family, and others accumulate wealth. What brings meaning to our lives is the impressions we leave on earth after we die. We as individual people may not be remembered, but attitudes we have, the morals we pass on to others, the ideas we express through art and occupation can last; they become timeless, everlasting, and as close to permanent as humans can achieve.