[Amanda, you are kind. And credit to Steve for asking the question first.]

Amanda, I still am not completely sure death is final and inevitable. I’m hoping to find an escape hatch.

If you could eat only one food for dinner for a month, what would it be?

Int

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Amanda, I still am not completely sure death is final and inevitable. I’m hoping to find an escape hatch.

If you could eat only one food for dinner for a month, what would it be?

Interesting, Cindy. I hope for some continuity myself, but I guess I was aiming at the inescapable fact that the body itself terminates (and before that, apparently memory too - though I didn't realize that part as a child). The awareness of dementia and memory loss - even amnesia - certainly challenges me if I want to retain faith in any kind of personal continuity.

If even while the body is alive, people can lose their own sense of self and recall of their most intimate relationships - well, that's extremely sad, to say the least. (I've often thought of the tragedy of children - still young, especially - struggling to cope with a parent stricken with amnesia. From trauma or a brain disease.)

It's bad enough for a spouse, but to think of children faced with a parent who doesn't remember them - not even their birth - it's gut-wrenching.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:

If you could eat only one food for dinner for a month, what would it be?

Not sure if this “one dish” qualifies as “one food,” but I suppose I can say mixed green salad with sesame ginger soy dressing topped with almond encrusted grilled salmon.

If you can and must impose everlasting life to exactly one human, other than yourself, who is still alive today or has ever lived in recorded history and would otherwise be mortal, whom would it be?

The words "can and must" and "impose" are prejudicial in directing a response.

It starts off with the tacit assumption that everlasting life is undesirable (a punishment is "imposed".)

Indeed, without any caveats about everlasting good health and even retaining the appearance of youth, it does indeed sound like a terrible fate (especially because one's family and social circle would have perished along the way).

I can't think of anyone I would be willing to doom to infinite longevity, in a presumably aging (and increasingly decrepit) body. Mind too, since it wasn't specified otherwise. What a curse.

I briefly considered Trump, but immediately shied away for fear that he might become even more of a cult leader than now even if he were scarcely, if at all, functioning.