If philosophical means questioning things, yes. It also hints at being in the moment. Too often life is seen from auto-pilot. Death, being near it, seeing it, makes this change obvious. We'll all experience death in our on way. @PieterH does us all a favour here writing about this. Take a moment to reflect about this post and what it means to you. Thx @PieterH.
Why, only on the edge of dying, people suddenly becomes "philosophical" and aware of their life and surroundings? Yet, it's obvious for all of us, that everyone now living will be dead after several decades. And no one seems to be really caring.
For whatever reason people express strong grief about dead or soon-to-be-dead in the manner, that they by themselves will never ever die, and it's so tragic and unexpected, that someone dies.
I just don't get it, how it happens, that we have world based on the cult of death and yet just everyone living in the illusion, that their existence will never end?
But when we are living in the thick of it we live much more within each other and the greater whole of society because we have to. That's how we survive. We give up some of our brainspace to ideas and systems that are built communally, both on a local/familial level and on an entire social level.
In other words, we spend a lot of our time going with the flow and allowing our opinions to be shaped by those we trust or love. Or at least I think that's part of it.
Edit: And in that sense we see individuals dying, but as we live we don't necessarily ponder ourselves dying as an individual because much of what we do and care about on a day to day basis will outlive us e.g. our families and ideals.
I do not see much difference in dying in the next 12 month or next 40 years.
There's also the difficulty in forming any real plans, which often take a few years, if you don't have some belief that you'll live to see them through.
So telling ourselves "I'm going to live forever" (or at least 20 years more) is a basis for making long term plans like buying a house, having children, planting a garden...
Because when you expect to live indefinitely (as most of us are until old age) your priorities are different. A lot of what we do is insurance against being alive tomorrow. If you want a roof over your head and food on the table, you need to spend some of the present NOT thinking about the big questions. You might even lower your quality of life, just because you expect it to be long, for instance by taking a job you don't like.
Think it's all about where your attention is. We've made a world full of noise and distractions to occupy our attention, keep us from getting bored. As a result we pay no attention to our selves.
At least not until you get older and learn to filter out the noise. Priorities.
I guess nearness of death brings the attention to where it needs to be - priorities suddenly and radically altered
In death, clarity comes from limited options.
Time-wise, no.
The guy who regrets working too hard at the end of life might be reflecting on some projects he put too much effort into, thinking he should have relaxed instead.
Yet with 50 more years, he might get a jump on a dozen more projects, or reach for that next promotion.
Hindsight, thou art a heartless bitch.
;)
Humans are not actually very good at remembering their past selves. Memories are reconstructed on the fly, we 'remember' by projecting our present selves into past situations.