If you could take a test that would tell you whether or not you would develop a disease that would result in your death at age 60, would you take it?  According to a study published in the April issue of American Economic Review, although the law of marginal utility, the study points out, dictates that we should take the test, most people who were asked, it also noted, indicated they would rather not do it.  If one is twenty, would she really want to know that she will die at age 60?
     Well, the study suggested, if one knew, one could plan her life to enjoy it as much as she could before age sixty.  That seems logical, does it not?  On the other hand, would you really want to map your life like that?  Again, most people would prefer not to do so.
     Why?  In the end, we would rather not know.  In the end, we would rather, in a perverse sort of way, be surprised.  We would rather embrace life for what it is, an chaotic, joyous, and invigorating tangle of challenge and satisfaction, rather than what we would like to think it is not, set in stone from the day we are born.
     However, if the latter is true, what do we do with things like the afterlife and God?  Do not numerous psalms and other ancient writings insist that our days are ordained by God before we are even born?  Yes, they do.  But we ourselves do not know what our days will be.  We only know they will be infused with meaning, value, and purpose, precisely because there is a God.
     And regardless of whether we live a short or long life, or whether we know when we will die or not, that makes all the difference.