Death

Your request that this not become a religious discussion is understandable for many people they are not able to discuss the topic without getting into theism and eschatology. Religion's main draw is the reassurance of immortality in the afterlife and it is how a lot of people cope with death.

I don't fret about it too much, but like you I have a lot I want to accomplish and I sometimes worry that I will not have time to do it all. On the other hand, I am quite looking forward to old age so that I can have an excuse to be crotchety and mean to children.

The T wrote: One of the final stages of proper psychological development is when, at old age, one comes to accept death.  I've not reach that stage yet. For now, I'll try to enjoy life which is too great. One day I'll start thinking about death. Not yet.

Great topic and I will come back to it because right now I do not have the time......................I have to attend a funeral.

I constantly think about death and think doing so makes you live a better life.

I stopped caring on 2/27/10. I was in Chile and was woken up by the 8.8 quake that struck there. I went outside and it was nothing but darkness and rubble. I was among total strangers and cut off from everyone I knew. During those first few hours, while everyone was panicking, I simply stopped caring about life and accepted death as a welcome inevitability. All the rubbish that happens between birth and death is an inconvenience you never asked for anyway.

JLocke wrote: thellama73 wrote: I don't fret about it too much, but like you I have a lot I want to accomplish and I sometimes worry that I will not have time to do it all. On the other hand, I am quite looking forward to old age so that I can have an excuse to be crotchety and mean to children.  Brilliant.

And of course use the phrase "you kids get the hell off my lawn".  I don't believe in afterlife, but I'm not afraid of it as long as it's not horribly painful and I go out on my own terms.  I think Zappa had the best idea: I wanna be dead in bed.

Now as far as life goes before I bite the big one as long as I have a little fun, make a few people laugh, have lots of sex, I will die happy.

And, oh yeah, review more albums here than Sean Trane, but that's not working out too well for me now.



Edited by Slartibartfast - October 11 2010 at 17:54

I almost drowned once as a kid (lost consciousness and all, had to be reanimated) and I know I don't want to go like that. I'd rather not die in too much pain too. That about limits my worries about death in itself. I don't know what's on the other side, and I'm not going to find out before I do die, so who cares? I can only enjoy my life and live it as best as a can.

I think I'm more worried about dying of old age, alone, single or widowed, or after having had a long or debilitating disease. That would totally suck the pleasure out of the last years of my life.

When I got home from work today, the old guy next door was sitting in his front yard.  He's in his 80s and has lived alone there since his wife passed 4 years ago.  He has never gotten over it.  They were soul mates.  He has no family left, and only one daughter who never visits.  So he is there alone all the time.  Today was a nice day and he was sitting out front. 

So instead of going inside my house I walked over to say Hi for a few minutes.  We chatted about yard work for a minute and then he inevitably gets to talking about her, and he starts to cry.  He still is on the verge of tears constantly, 4 years later.  Almost every time we talk he cries.

Today he told me the story of what happened in their final hours.  I don't know why he told me, but he wanted to, so I don't mind, I just listen.  She was walking to the car and collapsed.  (It was a stroke).  They took her to the hospital and she was barely conscious.  That night he was alone in the room with her when the Doctor came in.  Breaking the ice, the Doc says to him (my neighbor), "So, I hear you two have been married for 55 years!  That is really something!  How'd you manage that?"  

Before he could answer the Doc, she pipes up from her semi-conscious state, and without opening her eyes, "I scratch his back and he scratches mine."     Those were her last words. 




I don't think about death too much nor do I care to, and I disagree with Textbook's snarky comment that this means life is idiotic or worthless--not sure what compels such nonsense.   But anyway, I think at some point in middle age you just come to realize that chasing "happiness" is ultimately less fulfilling than learning contentment with what and who you have around you.  The precious moments of life are the little unheralded ones shared between people who love each other.  My neighbor reminds me often that it is the little, unremarkable things that are important and so missed.  Getting up together, sharing a coffee, laughing together.  I can only imagine what it must be like to lose that person after 5 or 6 decades. 

I think the luckiest people around are probably those who die before their partner does.  Almost every time I see neighbor he tells me he wants to die.  He's ready to die.  Life is only good until its not.  Then it sucks.  Enjoy your good days folks.   

JLocke wrote: ^ You know, it's odd you mention that. I almost drowned as a kid, also. But I remember being at peace as it was happening. ''At least I'll be in heaven,'' I remember thinking to myself.  Oh, whoops, almost broke my own rule, there.

All right, I do remember a few seconds, after I'd stop fighting for my life or before I lost consciousness or something (an older cousin jumped in to rescue me at some point) looking up at the sunlight through the water, and I guess that was a peaceful moment too. There was a lot of beauty there, in that image.

It's really the moment of gasping for air that I'd like to avoid. Although there's probably no escaping it, no matter how you go.