How long before Immortality would bore you?

One question I wanted to go around the room and ask regarding Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's The Mortal Immortal that I ran out of time for is:  How long do you think it would take for you before you'd get sick and tired of being immortal?  A sub-question to that one:  WHAT would it take for Immortality to lose its appeal?  (Assuming, of course, that immortality is appealing and desirable.....)  Whether you read my post for this or not, I hope you'll answer this question yourself!!!!

(*I think the title is supposed to be in quotation marks rather than italicized....yikes!  That one's mine!)

For me, it would honestly be the same answer whether I'm immortal or not:  I wouldn't want to go on living if anything were to happen to my son, Samuel.  This isn't easy to write about, but I'm going to go ahead and say it--just so you know, this is going to get really personal, so if you don't want to read something really personal about your instructor, stop reading here. 

Anyway, I have, in my lifetime, dealt with death enough to last several lifetimes for one person.  Most significantly have been my child losses.  I had a stillbirth in March 1999.  (I was two weeks away from my due date, so I was full term.)  Later that same year, in November, I had a miscarriage.  Samuel was finally born in May 2001 after a long, difficult, scary pregnancy.  Then, in 2005, in November--yes, again, I had another miscarriage (that one actually started while I was here at CVCC--I was taken away via ambulance).  So, for me, Samuel is the light of my life.  Sure, my husband and other family members are very important to me.  I love them all very much.  But Samuel is IT.  I live for him.  My life does revolve around him.

Maybe it's wrong of me to put so much time and effort into my son, but after what I've been through, I simply can't help it.  I have always been a person who wanted children.  Yes, children.  Even though I went to college to get a DEGREE in teaching English rather than for my "Mrs." degree, I still knew that I would one day get married and have children.  Being a working woman was not going to keep me from being a mother.  I was living in the 20th Century, for heaven's sake.  Women all around me were having their cake and eating it, too (getting married and having families as well as jobs outside the home).  There was no reason whatsoever that I couldn't have the same.

(So why haven't I tried again since 2005?  Several reasons:  one, my husband is sick and tired of watching me suffer--which is ironic considering my recent health issues (I had a diverticulitus attack back in 2009--I almost died--I had two separate operations within 3 months--both to save my life, essentially) and two:  I can't because in 2010, I had something called an ablasion, which destroys the lining of the uterus, so I can't get pregnant--at all.)

Therefore, I'd be happy to have immortality as long as it means that I can be alive to see my son grow up, go to college, get married, have a family of his own, have a job he loves, and LIVE.  Otherwise, that's it.  My "bucket list" is void next to that.  Sure I'd love to write something that would actually get published and be successful as a writer.  That WOULD BE awesome--a dream come true.  But even that is insignificant next to being around for my son. 

I GET the whole idea that we talked about in class about the desire to end life, even an immortal one, because of loneliness.  There truly is nothing worse in this world than being alone.  My true worst fear in life is to die alone.  The saddest stories I've ever heard are the one about people who die and it's weeks before anyone even knows they've died.  Friends, family, and even acquaintances are more important in our lives than most people realize or even understand.  It's only when we are left standing alone, especially at times in our lives when we NEED our loved ones, that we truly realize how very important they really are.

The easy answer to the question of what would ruin immortality for me would be when I finally have read all the books I've ever wanted to read--several times.  Or when I've seen all the movies I'd ever want to see.  Sad that I couldn't write about those things instead, I know.....

I LOVE stories about immortality and Mary Shelley's "The Mortal Immortal" certainly fits into that category!!!!!! 

(Just for fun, if I can find it, I'm going to post a link to a clip from the movie Highlander with Christopher Lambert (one of my hotties) where the title line is "There can be only one!" and the way for the immortals in this story to die is via beheading.  It's actually the music video by Queen for the movie, but it's still worth watching!  Yeah, I know Queen!!!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYOE_b4aYD0)

Bibliography

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft.  "The Mortal Immortal."  The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  Eds.  Jack Stillinger and Deidre Shauna Lynch.  8th ed.  New York:  W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.  961-970.  Print.