After the illness, then death, of a close family friend within a much too short six week period of time, I began to ponder the fragility of life and the limited time we have here on earth...

在短短的六个星期内，经历了一个亲朋好友的病痛，死亡之后，我就开始思考生命的脆弱，以及我们到底有多少有限的时间。

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To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly.

总体上在我看来，从客观的角度，没完没了地思考自己为什么会存在，或者是生命有什么意义，是非常愚蠢的行为。

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The average life span of humans continues to lengthen, and some scientists have begun to ponder whether this trend will continue indefinitely.

随着物质生活的不断提高，人类的平均寿命有不断变长的趋势。一些科学家们也开始仔细思考这个趋势是否会一直持续下去帮助人类达到永生。

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Since then, other actors have helped Charlie Brown try to kick footballs, fly kites and ponder the meaning of life.

NPR: 'Great Pumpkin' Marks 40 Years on TV

The poem goes on to ponder the pain of grief, the challenge of commemoration and the mystery of what lies beyond this life.

WSJ: Meditation on Mortality | Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard | Thomas Gray | Masterpiece by John J. Miller