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Comment by choeger | Hacker News Reader

Grief is the point of living. Only when losing something or someone hurts you, you know their true value to yourself.

>Only when losing something or someone hurts you, you know their true value to yourself.

I strongly disagree. Self-aware, introspective people who deliberately examine what's important to themselves in a conscious effort to not take it for granted, do not need to lose it to only then know the true value of it.

I don’t know, I freak out just thinking at the depths of loss I’ll experience when my parents die. I’m aware enough by partially inspecting what they mean and do for me to have a hard time fathoming the total of that “calculation.”

Read about stoics and negative visualization then give it a shot. Live in that uncomfortable mental space of life without your parents. Not to dull their life and your time left with them, but the opposite! The stoics used negative visualization to appreciate what they had. Many people mistake the stoics for being morbid, but it should work for most people to enhance their time and ability to stay present with people they love. It is a profound and different way to live compared to how most people seem to approach mortality, but it works well for me. When they pass, there will still be grief, but you will take their passing with the sure knowledge you optimized your time with them.

I think that's a bit morbid and misses the point. I would say grief gives life meaning and

> know their true value to yourself.

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