damianpart 2: Death
July 18th 2008 09:35
It may be a bit premature to skip straight from birth to death, but then again death is the only certainty in life, or so the saying goes. I think at one stage taxes may have been included in that category, but whoever was responsible for that one obviously hadn't heard of Bermuda.
Anyway, it seems rather strange that, given the absolute certainty of death, we seem to spend our entire lives attempting to put it off. Whether it's through eating organic food, moving to the country for the 'clean air' (clearly forgetting the contribution to global warming from the methane emissions of cows and sheep!), dosing up on any and every kind of tablet under the sun, or indeed consciously avoiding such medicines and relying instead on herbal/traditional remedies, we will stop at no length in the pursuit of a longer, healthier life.
So what is it about death that scares us so much? Wouldn't we be much happier if we learnt to simply embrace death as natural and inevitable? Sure, in some cases death may seem to be premature and really come at a bad time, striking down those in the prime of their life (just ask the goldfish my little brother once took out of its bowl in order to give it a pat). However, far from being a reason to fear death, surely this reinforces my point that we should accept it and just enjoy living our life.
I once tried to tell a smoker off for endangering their life through this blatantly unhealthy habit. Their rationale was basically that there were so many ways in which their life could come to a sudden and tragic end that realistically the dangers of smoking compared fairly well in a statistical sense. I attempted to attack on another front by calculating how much money this person could have saved by not buying cigarettes over the years. When confronted by the enormity of this amount of money, they paused for a moment. Sensing I had uncovered a fatal flaw in their argument I followed up by asking them to consider the things they could have bought with that money. They hesitated a moment more before replying "shit, imagine how many decks of smokes that would buy!"
While this person may not have been consciously aware of doing so, they clearly subscribed to theory that happiness is more valuable in life than in death. Admittedly smoking may not be the ideal way in which to live out this philosophy, but nonetheless on a rational level this attitude seems to make a lot of sense. Putting aside belief in heaven/hell and notions of small red creatures pricking our posteriors with pitchforks, if we imagine death to be simply a sleep-like form of non-existence (with the difference that we don't wake up the next morning) it really doesn't seem that bad.
For some people the idea of non-existence is not a particularly savoury notion, but the reality is that it's not as bad as it can seem. Think of it: no more early morning starts for work; no more bills, parking fines or annoying dogs that won't stop barking; no more unwanted pregnancies and awkward post-pregnancy dinners with your girlfriend's parents. Never again will you have to relive those tense moments where you sweated over the best way to break the news to them that you have been playing amateur baker with their daughter's oven and surveyed the room for strategic exit points, should her Christian fundamentalist father not take the news as well as you had hoped.
So you see, death isn't that bad after all.
Anyway, it seems rather strange that, given the absolute certainty of death, we seem to spend our entire lives attempting to put it off. Whether it's through eating organic food, moving to the country for the 'clean air' (clearly forgetting the contribution to global warming from the methane emissions of cows and sheep!), dosing up on any and every kind of tablet under the sun, or indeed consciously avoiding such medicines and relying instead on herbal/traditional remedies, we will stop at no length in the pursuit of a longer, healthier life.
So what is it about death that scares us so much? Wouldn't we be much happier if we learnt to simply embrace death as natural and inevitable? Sure, in some cases death may seem to be premature and really come at a bad time, striking down those in the prime of their life (just ask the goldfish my little brother once took out of its bowl in order to give it a pat). However, far from being a reason to fear death, surely this reinforces my point that we should accept it and just enjoy living our life.
I once tried to tell a smoker off for endangering their life through this blatantly unhealthy habit. Their rationale was basically that there were so many ways in which their life could come to a sudden and tragic end that realistically the dangers of smoking compared fairly well in a statistical sense. I attempted to attack on another front by calculating how much money this person could have saved by not buying cigarettes over the years. When confronted by the enormity of this amount of money, they paused for a moment. Sensing I had uncovered a fatal flaw in their argument I followed up by asking them to consider the things they could have bought with that money. They hesitated a moment more before replying "shit, imagine how many decks of smokes that would buy!"
While this person may not have been consciously aware of doing so, they clearly subscribed to theory that happiness is more valuable in life than in death. Admittedly smoking may not be the ideal way in which to live out this philosophy, but nonetheless on a rational level this attitude seems to make a lot of sense. Putting aside belief in heaven/hell and notions of small red creatures pricking our posteriors with pitchforks, if we imagine death to be simply a sleep-like form of non-existence (with the difference that we don't wake up the next morning) it really doesn't seem that bad.
For some people the idea of non-existence is not a particularly savoury notion, but the reality is that it's not as bad as it can seem. Think of it: no more early morning starts for work; no more bills, parking fines or annoying dogs that won't stop barking; no more unwanted pregnancies and awkward post-pregnancy dinners with your girlfriend's parents. Never again will you have to relive those tense moments where you sweated over the best way to break the news to them that you have been playing amateur baker with their daughter's oven and surveyed the room for strategic exit points, should her Christian fundamentalist father not take the news as well as you had hoped.
So you see, death isn't that bad after all.
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Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
Yeah, taxes were in there somewhere... I think, personally, that breathing might be certain, you know, to take at least one breath, but then you consider the babies that never manage and just die the second they come out...
Death... how it fascinates us... *is a little death obsessed*
And... welcome to Orble... don't mind if I'm a little odd and I pop in every now and then... I don't sleep much... and I'm a fantasy writer... that's my excuse for all my oddities...
~Dianna
Comment by Wilson Pon
Health 2 Know
Adventure Toes
Techno Stuffs
boxing sound
Business Rope
To me, Death is not an horrible thing, is all about your own point of view and how well you deal with it...
By the way, welcome to Orble, and I think Jon will offer something good to you here in the near future...
So, just keep up the good works!
Wilson P.