I’ve often considered the question of immortality to be an interesting one, because it directly affects not only myself, but the people and the world around me.    Why can’t we simply keep on living — forever?   Why must we miss out on all the terribly interesting things going on in our world as time progresses simply because our bodies wear out?   I often curse that I was born in such interesting times, the dawn of the Internet, the age of information and globalization, a real turning point in the evolution of the human race to perhaps something more than simple survival and sex.    When I consider the dates, and realize that I’ll be fortunate to see the next 50 years,  impressive to see 70, and inhuman to have another 80, I tend to get really, really depressed.

After all, I’ve already blown through 31 years, most of which was spent figuring out life and all its complex nuances.   I mean, the first 5 years are a wash — you don’t recall anything, and you’re just learning basics.   The next 15 you’re toddling through your childhood, blissful and ignorant, mostly ignoring the turmoil around you, until you hit adolescence, are suddenly told to act like an adult, get a job, and be mature, and then you spend the next 10 years figuring out, exactly, how to do so.   So by the time you emerge from the haze around 25 or so, you’ve generally got the course of the ship sorted out but you’ve spent over 1/4 of your life doing so.   Good job on the efficiency.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet seen the movie Twilight and you know nothing about it and want to be completely surprised, then stop reading now.   If, however, you’ve read the book or at least know the basic premise, nothing will be revealed here that might detract from that.   I just had to warn those out there, like me, who had not read the books and had not seen the movie until last night.

At the end of the movie, Bella is presented with a curious choice:   Edward can easily make her into a vampire simply by biting her and letting the venom take its course, and then they can stay together forever (since vamps are immortal), but she becomes what he is, a “monster”, destined to stay the same age forever, constantly running away from suspicions and curious humans, attending high school over and over, and either sating her thirst with the blood of animals or falling to the burning desire to nurse on the carotid of some unfortunate sod.

Her family, friends, and others not afflicted similarly would fade away; grow old, sick, and die in time, while she remained the same in physical form, forever bearing the weight of the ages on her soul.

The bonus to this, however, is she gets to remain with her true love for all time; to never grow old, sick, or die; to have the strength to defend herself against almost anything and to do superhuman feats with ease.    She would easily get to experience centuries –  millennia — of human progress and invention, the ebbs and flows of societies, cultures, and countries, and to experience all that technology has to offer for the future.

But is the sacrifice worth the gain?

That is the question, and that is my question to you, dear readers — what is the solution to Bella’s Dilemma?

I admit; the appeal to become immortal and see all that is to come, to have the strength and ability to be diseaseless, and to retain that which is myself — my thoughts, my actions, my experiences that I took so long to acquire and paid such dear prices to have — this seems a wonderful thing, perhaps.    But at what cost?

Would you willingly expose your neck to the fangs of infinite opportunity in exchange for the everlasting stigma?   Or do you accept the ravages of time and the inevitable end?