On the significance and pleasures of life ... From "The Life of David Gale"

You get Lacan's point.
Fantasies have to be unrealistic...
because the moment... the second...
that you get what you seek...
you don't...
you can't want it anymore.       
In order to continue to exist...
desire must have its objects
perpetually absent.
It's not the "it" that you want.
It's the fantasy of"it."
- So, desire supports crazy fantasies.
This is what Pascal means when he says
that we are only truly happy...
when daydreaming
about future happiness.   
- Or why we say...
the hunt is sweeter
than the kill.
Or be careful what you wish for,
not because you'll get it...
but because you're doomed
not to want it once you do.
So the lesson of Lacan is,
living by your wants
will never make you happy.
What it means to be fully human is
to strive to live by ideas and ideals...
and not to measure your life
by what you've attained
in terms of your desires...
but those small moments
of integrity, compassion...
rationality, even self-sacrifice.                
Because in the end, the only way
that we can measure the
significance of our own lives...
is by valuing the lives of others.

But what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back. Then there comes a point - a moment - in life when your mind outlives its desires, its obsessions, when your habits survive your dreams, and when your losses... Maybe death is a gift. You wonder.