【人物】“记得你将很快死去”

“记住你将很快死去”

苹果教主乔布斯留下未啃完的苹果回到伊甸园里去了。

一时间，他的创业传奇故事和私生活点点滴滴为全世界所津津乐道。

我对这些漠不关心，反而是他在其著名的斯坦福大学演讲中关于死亡部分的论述颇得我心：

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

“记住你即将死去”是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言，它帮我指明了生命中重要的选择。因为几乎所有的事情，包括所有的荣誉、所有的骄傲、所有对难堪和失败的恐惧都已经无关宏旨，会在死亡面前消失，”

若干年前，当乔布斯还是意气风发踌躇满志的时候，我曾经写下我对死亡的思考：

 死亡畅想曲

 Unlike those well-publicized heroes/heroines who have shown the world how courageous they are at the final hours of their lives, I, being a naturally-born coward(I hate to admit that, but, hey, honesty is the best policy, right?), has this inherent, haunting fear for death.

Death is not a stranger to us. Everyday we have witnessed, through our eyes and ears, the cessation of lives everywhere, be it natural deaths in hospitals, unexpected deaths at the scenes of traffic accidents, or unwanted deaths by intentional killings. Yet most of the time we tend to remain calm and indifferent unless there happen to be someone close to us among those dead.

But have you ever, in the course of your life, tried to stop for a moment to ponder very seriously, attentively and vividly upon your own death, which is also inevitable?

I have.

Even when I was a young kid, I would sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, from a nightmare and sprang up from the bed, feeling so genuinely that the final second of my life had come. An unspeakable and uncontrollable feeling of fear would suddenly soaked my whole body and soul, and I would tremble, sweat, panicked, and my young heart would cry out. “Oh, no!”

Of course this feeling would not last long, and the fear would eventually subside and diminish, as I conscientiously persuaded myself: “Come on, guy, it is still a long way to go!” or “Perhaps medical miracles would happen before that!” or something of similar effect. Then I would lie down, smoothen out my irregular breath, and resume my nightmare again.

Strangely such close-to-death experience has proved to be quite educating and enlightening though. It has helped me to understand the accidental nature of birth, the inevitability of death and the triviality of our existence.

To be more accurate, it is not the fear for the death itself, for the moment the death takes place, it is the fear for being pronounced dead. The fear arises rather from our sad knowledge that OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED! And I believe the capital punishment of a criminal is not so much in the moment of execution as in the days after the announcement of his death penalty.

Now that I have grown up into a man and my mind has been bothered more by our day-to-day routines, yet this haunting fear for death has mockingly remained at the backdoor of my heart. I would still wake up in a dark or stormy night, suddenly sit up and feel, “I am dying…, I am dying…”

Of course, in addition to this unfailing fear, I have also more to ponder now, such as:

To whom should my secret bank accounts be entrusted?

When and where should my reincarnation take place?

To be a woman or to be a man?

Etc., etc.,…….

So, my dear readers, upon finishing this article, do spend a couple of minutes to ponder upon your own death in every possible detail, and let us enjoy sharing our common fear for my death….or YOURS!

人类对死亡有一种无奈的恐惧，因而对此话题讳莫如深，好像死亡只与他人有关，或者是一件十分遥远虚无缥缈的事情。其实，只有死亡才是人类生活中唯一可以绝对确认的一件事。每一条生命都将以某种形式或早或迟结束---或死于非命（如被泰国毒贩杀害的中国船员），或死于绝症（如乔布斯），或寿终正寝（如蒋介石）。

对本我的生命而言，过去的每一天，每一刻，每一秒已经毫无意义。从时间的长河来看，短命与长寿也毫无根本区别。

有人认为，活得精彩，或享尽荣华富贵，或赢得功名，或留下宝贵遗产（包括精神文化遗产），生命就有了意义。

真的吗？

乔布斯活得够精彩，名利双收，也留下了宝贵的科技遗产。他那已经终结的生命，对还活着的他者有意义。而对乔布斯本我的生命，已经毫无意义。

我要对乔布斯说，

“记住你已经死去。”