What's Your Fate Worse Than Death?

[KristineS]

I've read this post from Peter Shankman (http://shankman.com/whats-your-fate-worse-than-death/) a couple of times and it has really been resonating with me. I know what my fate worse than death is, but I'm wondering what some of yours are. Is your FWTD personal or professional or a mix of both?

[lucas.bowser]

Having any of my four children die before me. I'd rather die before I see that day come.

[vangogh]

I can think of a few things, though I'd rather not talk about any of them specifically. None relate to my professional life. For the most part I believe in that which does not kill us makes us stronger. There are plenty of horrible things that can happen to any of us and I wouldn't wish them on anyone. Still no matter what happens (with a perhaps a few exceptions here and there) if you're still alive you can make your situation better.

[billbenson]

I watched a friend who was an athlete but severely injured his back snow skiing 20 or so years ago drink himself to death with occasional help from cocaine. The doctors gave him oxycodone for the pain but he hated it because it made him completely non functional. He'd go off of it for a while living through the withdrawal symptoms but would eventually go back on it. He didn't have money or insurance for a back operation that might have helped. So he just drank. Eventually because of inactivity and drinking he developed a heart condition and died. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to die.

I think being severely disabled and in constant pain would be worse than death.

[Harold Mansfield]

What Bill said is up there, and so are the obvious things of a loved one passing.

But my immediate one is Prison. Not that I have any worries of having any reason to go to prison, but the thought of being convicted of a crime that I didn't commit and going to jail for some reason horrifies me.
Probably because I know how easy it is for that to happen when a DA decdes that you are guilty and that you will be tried and convicted, and I don't have the money for the kind of defense that I would need to prove my innocence.

The law only says that you have the right to an attorney. It doesn't say that they have to be any good. And the thought of having to take a plea for a crime I didn't commit, as opposed to taking my chances with a crappy free attorney and getting a tougher sentence, is a rock and a hard place that many people are forced to deal with.

If for some reason I was arrested for something completely made up or mistaken identity or whatever, and the DA was insistent about going forward to convict me, there wouldn't be anything that I could do.
Could any of us?

[KristineS]

Wow, these are some interesting answers. pretty personal too.

I have the disability one myself. Since I've had some health issues, sometimes it does occur to me that something really bad, but not bad enough to kill me could happen, and I wonder how I would handle that.

[billbenson]

I thought of the prison one as well. Not from eborgs convicted for something I didn't do standpoint, but if you were in there for life, you have no hope of achievements in life. Life would become very meaningless to me if I couldn't achieve goals, make a difference, help someone, whatever.

[cbscreative]

Here's an interesting question to ponder: What if everything in life is worse than death?

For the record, I enjoy every day in life so I'm not being cynical.

[jamesray50]

Right now I can think of lots of things worse than death. Maybe I should see a therapist. lol.

[Elias]

I cant think for something more worth. Because its the end. Every kind of experience cant be made after this point. Of course some experiences you do not want to get. But you often can learn from them. The only thing which i can imagine is some kind of permanent loss of any bodyfunction or some looked in syndromes. That could be really bad.