70 years is a long time. At around 8000 hours a year it is over half a million hours. You could imagine people being pretty happy about that. Charismatic mega fauna such as lions or polar bears have much shorter lives (15 or 20 years?). If you are a furry, that offers you a pretty big consolation for being an ape instead of something cool, such as a tiger.

Few people manage to embrace the joy of life in such a positive way. They have a concept of a metaphysical-self, distinct from the body, which could live on after the death of the body, perhaps in a special place, or by moving to a newly created body. This metaphysical-self is both their joy and their curse. The concept works as a charm warding of the fear of death on the days when it seems real, but on the days when it is in doubt, the contrast makes death seem terrible instead of natural.

Why bother with a metaphysical-self at all? What if you only lived for one day? You die during the night and tomorrow, your body having slept well without you, is inhabited by somebody else who inherits your memories.

It would be tempting to stay awake as long as you could. Your drinking would not be tempered by the fear of a hangover; somebody else gets to cope with the dehydrated, aching body. The credit card would suffer some serious damage; legal liability rests with the body, that some other lucky sod will be enjoying when the bill comes in.

Perhaps the metaphysical-self, despite the neurotic misery of its craving for immortality, is essential.

Or perhaps it is unnecessary. As one goes through life one is likely to be involved in a lot of caring. In ones twenties or thirties one might have young children to care for. In ones fifties ones parents may become frail and need much help. Buddhist practise has a heavy emphasise on developing positive emotions. metta = friendliness, ideally with the same kind of intensity usually reserved for hate. Caruna = compassion. Mudita ="sympathetic joy" ie being pleased when things go well for others. Upeksha = equanimity, when the lioness catches the Thomson's Gazelle it means food for her cubs, you do not have to take the Tommy's view and see it as a bad thing.

If one developed ones positive emotions to a sufficient pitch, could one simply care for oneself as an expression of compassion for whoever gets the body tomorrow, even it it wasn't "you"?

One already does this kind of thing, paying for a life insurance policy for the sake of others. If you pushed it hard enough you would be free of the need for a metaphysical-self. When ones close friends suffer misfortune, one can sometimes be very useful, exactly because it is not happening to "you". One retains one sense of perspective and avoids getting too caught up in the distress of the moment. It would be liberating to be ones own friend and look after oneself in this way. One could cope competently, without lament "Oh god, why did this have to happen to me

This weeks theory of Buddhism describes the goal thus: One tries to develop positive emotions to the degree that one can function as a competent adult, without needing to cling to the painful delusion of a metaphysical-self.