Death

What is death? Why do we, in America at least, make such a big production of it? In short, why do we dwell on it?

Why do we mourn and carry on … in some cases for weeks or longer … over someone that has died? Certainly it is a loss, and particularly painful when it is the loss of someone that you’ve loved very closely over the years. To be saddened by the loss is understandable … to miss the individual is to be expected … but why do we, on the whole, feel the need to remember the Death more than the Person? Why do so many of us grasp onto that pain and wrap it around ourselves dwelling on the loss rather than the memories of the life?

Does it help the departed love one? Do we feel that in so torturing ourselves that we some how make it easier on them? Do we think it makes them feel better? Do we think that by wrapping ourselves in that pain and loss that we somehow love them more, or remember them better?

Death is a part of life. It is as natural as breathing and it is inevitable for all of us. Those of us left behind to live our lives should not dwell on the Death, but remember with gladness the memories that we have of the loved one. Celebrate their life and cherish their place in yours, but do not dwell on their passing or your loss … for that route … though often ‘romanticized’ … does neither them, nor you, any good.

Certainly this is easier to do when the person dies of natural causes such as age or disease … but those whom we loose to accident, disaster, or to the acts of others, either negligent or malicious, need to be treated the same. The dead are beyond our reach …. The living must continue to live.