If i DIE now, would it matter HOW i LIVED?

Question

If i DIE now, would it matter HOW i LIVED?
or if you do, would it matter how you lived if its ALL OVER...

Answer

Of course it MATTERS! Havent you ever seen quotIts a Wonderful Life?quot The trouble is, in the US and western culture, we have a heavy tendency to measure everything in terms of such tangible things dollars, homes, or even quothow manyquot people you made happy. But quotmeaningquot or quotwhat mattersquot is qualitative and thats the way it matters. Just that fact that you are here and touch the lives around you and get to be here enjoying life quotmatters.quot Think of the people that matter to you. Dont you think you matter to someone? If you died, the entire world would be different. You would be missed. And even what you did before you died would still matter because people around you would be different. Different things would happen. If the Mona Lisa had one small paint stroke missing, it would be a different painting. Even if quotits all overquot the time that you are here matters. Before us, there were the Greeks, Romans, African cultures living, loving, carrying on life. When you imagine those places, seeing ruins, does it not matter that they were there? Societies gone are still treasures of our Universe. Theyre pretty darn rare if you think of it on a universe scale.brbrAnother thing that I think often trips us all up around what matters is that MOST of the time, we cant even know WHY what we do matters. You cant see what might happen in the future because of you. It may be a smile that you didnt think about that brightened at parents day and they didnt hit their child and the child becomes a better person. You cant KNOW what matters. You can only know that caring and compassion tend to lead toward better outcomes and thoughtlessness and menace tends to lead toward poor ones.brWhat will happen you cant say because the future is always uncertain.brbrIt matters that you asked this question because I have the joy of getting to answer it. If you werent here or you didnt care, I wouldnt get that opportunity. And this is something Im struggling with as well. But can we look into our heart of hearts and say honestly that what we do does not matter?