Death is an uncomfortable subject. It’s awkward. It’s unsettling. Rarely do we ever look beyond our present moment to our final one, and yet it exists for all of us. We are all stamped with an expiration date, none is getting out of here alive.
It’s important to recognise death, what we would perceive as our untimely ending not as a disaster mission, but as merely transition. However it’s easier to forget what looms on the horizon for each of our individual lives and to forget the traditional depiction of a skeleton with the scythe and hood. Pretend it doesn’t exist.
When people recount on stories of illness or some other tragedy that befalls them, I sometimes read or hear them say, ‘I never thought it would happen to me’. We hold a similar attitude towards death. We are only willing to deal with it when it’s here, as unwelcomed guest.
The Far East has a more interesting and open-minded approach to death. In some places, the dead are brought through the streets in open coffins for all to see, there is an element of acceptance that the person has ‘moved on’ instead of ‘died’.
The West is an entirely different story. In movies, survivors are depicted as the people who ‘made it’ or survived a disastrous situation, let’s say for example, the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (a spectacular example!). What the audience doesn’t see are the years they spend seeing a psychiatrist trying to put the traumatic memories behind them and prepare themselves for a life living with survivor’s guilt. I’m not dissing these action films however, what I find more and more is that people cling to life. Call it the survival instinct I suppose. It’s like they can’t bear or cope with the reality they will eventually have to face. They would prefer to loom an illusion of immortality around themselves, a twilight zone that they cannot remain in.
In one of the books that I have recommended on my website, the author refers to death as someone on your left shoulder who can provide you counsel, if you’re willing to listen. If you’re aware of your immortality it can make you very frank with life, and by that I mean real about it.
A lot of people fall into jobs they don’t like, marry people they don’t truly love and make choices that aren’t in line with their integrity, values or their heart. Y’know your heart? You do have one! I don’t know about you but I get the impression they’re almost sleeping through their lives. And then they die.
I tend to find death as a way of reminding me of the little time I have on this planet and whether there is an afterlife or not is of no relevance. For me, it’s about getting my ducks in a row and hitting on the target points that my heart has set out for me this time round, and not my head. For I think I followed it too much so far in my life.
Setting up this blog and website was my heart’s choice, my mind merely implemented the decision for me through knowledge, coordination and analysing. It’s good when these two work in unison. 😉
What are your thoughts around death? Or is there an ideal way of living? As I believe that ideal way differs from one person to another.
