"Live Each as if the Last"

A science teacher in the Catholic Peace Weekly gives readers some thoughts during this month, when we think of and pray for the dead, having just celebrated All Souls Day.

On February 22, 2023, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) observed a comet that appeared. It was first discovered on January 9 at the Zijinshan Observatory in China and was named ‘C/2023 A3 Zijinshan-Atlas’. It approached Earth at 70 km per second and will be observed in the western sky after sunset from October 12 to the end of this year. 

A comet is a celestial body with a core of ice and rock and a tail of gas and dust. It is formed in the Oort cloud outside the solar system. The comet has an orbital period of 86,600 years, so Paleolithic people were probably the first to see it in the night sky.

ATLAS is an early warning system developed by NASA to notify people of expected major damage from celestial bodies from space and to prepare for evacuation in advance. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute also operates a system to track and monitor these dangerous celestial bodies.  Comets, asteroids, and meteorites can cause large-scale damage to life on Earth, and about 2,200 of them currently have this potential.

There is a strong theory that the extinction of the dinosaurs, that ruled the Earth 65 million years ago, was due to a meteorite impact with a diameter of about 10 km, which had a power more than 1 million times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. During geological history, there have been five mass extinctions on Earth. When Halley's Comet, which had a tail full of poisonous gas, approached the Earth in 1910, some Europeans committed suicide out of fear, while others squandered all their fortunes. Fortunately, there is no possibility of a comet passing by the Earth this time and colliding with the Earth.

Let's think about the rise and fall of all life forms and civilizations that lived on Earth during the 80,000 years that the comet passed from the solar system's edge. Compared to that long time, how fleeting is the human life span of less than 100 years? In that short time, material desires, pleasures, and success are nothing but vanity compared to the sublime and eternal values.

All living beings are given only a finite amount of time in space and time of the universe. We all live a limited life, and we know this well. We just don’t know the last day of our lives. That’s why the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic philosopher, wrote in his autobiographical record of reflection, Meditations— “Live each day as if it were your last. Don’t be anxious. Don’t become numb. This is the perfection of character.”

If my life were to end tomorrow suddenly due to a celestial body that threatens the Earth or an unexpected accident like a traffic accident, how should I live today? Perhaps I would regret not smiling a little brighter today or not giving a little more of myself for the betterment of the world. We must live today so we will not have any regrets even if we die tomorrow. Because we all will die someday. So we must live well right now. “So stay awake, for you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:13)