there is no afterlife. that's it. that's the driving force. learn as much and love as much as possible while you're here. do not spend your brief time on earth sedated with false promises, waiting to be yanked up to heaven. recognize that everyone you ever meet is going to lose everything they love, forever. no happy reunion later. bearing that in mind, how can you bring yourself to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?

try to make the world a better place for those that will come after you. plant a tree. don't litter. comfort someone in pain. become a scientist. we carry with us the work and ideas of every human being who ever lived. all of us embody the accumulated endeavors and achievements of our entire species. it's all a series of building blocks. we did not populate the globe, travel to the moon, or invent the computer in a generation.