A Moment for Others vs. An Eternity for Oneself

This was really easy for me to decide on. I think I've already determined, in lieu of any specific careers, what I want to do with my life. Although I have a lot of non-charity-oriented interests, I've actually been thinking about this or situations like this in recent months/weeks, and I know that being accomplished is what really makes me satisfied, and that knowing I've helped others and helped along a positive change -- and that phrase is so vague and dull it makes me cringe, but I hope it gets the point across -- is what will really make me content and at peace at the end of the day, at the end of my life. And so there are no logical reasons for me to choose the second option.

What would I do if I lived forever, anyway? Trapped inside the cage of my physical body, I could only experience the world for eternity through my own two eyes. And although I usually hold the perspective that (almost) everything, or at least everything organic, is a miracle, I'm sure it would become stale after a while. What good is the miracle of the earth if you can't contribute to it? In my mind, at least, I wouldn't be able to enjoy life like that.

Plus, I don't really believe in death anyway, at least not in the conventional sense, and although I do fear dying before I have taken full advantage of my this action-enabling life, I don't want to live forever, because I think everything does anyway. (Yeah, that was vague, sorry; I've got this whole theory/philosophy that could go on for a while that I tried to condense into a sentence.)

Putting that aside, in summation, I would rather live for a powerful moment than an eternity; surely the people I'd help would appreciate my sacrifice. And so since I deem it a total possibility that my soul could have been born in the body of anybody else, I would hope that who I actually turned out to be would help instead of living forever. Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. 

From the musical "Man of La Mancha" or the book "Don Quixote," I choose the character Don Quixote to illustrate my point. For those not familiar with that story (whether in its play or literary form), a synopsis: Don Quixote is a dude in Medieval times who is kind of off his rocker, in that he has hallucinations and a general distorted perception of reality. For example, he thinks he's a knight, while in truth is the laughingstock of the community, runs around in tin and a shaving basin for a helmet, and his sidekick Tonto is not really the sharpest arrow in the quiver either. So when our dashing Don meets an angry, crusty prostitute, Aldonza, he thinks she is his long-awaited, dearly-beloved Dulcinea, a sublimely good and beautiful maiden. 

So anyway, here Don is, chasing after Aldonza, bravely picking fights with windmills, as he thinks they are actually fearsome foes of humanity. The point is not that he's crazy, though; it is that in this sad, underprivileged primrose, he sees the good of her soul and the beauty underneath it all; in his delusional quests, there is a sincere motivation to protect others and simply make the world a better place. As Quixote sings in "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)": "To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe/...To right the unrightable wrong.../To try when your arms are too weary.../...To reach the unreachable star/...This is my quest, to follow that star/No matter how hopeless, no matter how far/To fight for the right, without question or pause/To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause/And I know if I only be true to this glorious quest/That my heart will lie peaceful and calm, when I lie to my rest/That the world may be better for this..."

From this, I think it's pretty clear what Don Quixote would choose. The line "to march into hell for a heavenly cause" by itself is fairly telling. I have much admiration for this Man of La Mancha for his willingness to put all and any others above himself, and so would choose the same, I hope.