As we get older, many of us begin to consider our deaths and how we hope to experience our own death. As we hear of how other people have died, some ideas become our most undesirable death anticipations.

Since my grandmother and my mother both had Alzheimer’s before they died, I definitely fear that fate. Friends of mine have died in auto accidents. When I think of that, I wonder if they felt the pain or if it was instant and therefore painless. So many thoughts become involved when I think of death. I guess I have decided that I hope God will simply let me go to sleep and not awaken in this lifetime. That would be my preferential way to go.

However, lately I have become aware of how some people who have transgressed the law of the land are being punished for their indiscretions. Some criminals are condemned to death and must wait until the designated time before the death sentence is taken care of. That would be extremely stressful, waiting for that final day to come. As the day approached, the stress would likely become harder to endure. Yet, because they are in prison and prevented from suicide, they have no option but to wait. That last day and that last meal would be quite negative for them.

However, some criminals do not have a death sentence. A life sentence with no chance of parole awaits a great number of transgressors. Prison life, itself, would surely be very hard to welcome for one’s future. The dangers in a prison must be stressful and, at times, physically painful.

If a prisoner has no family or if his or her family fails to show enough respect to visit or send letters, that would be emotionally painful. Surely, everyone needs to feel that someone cares about him or her. Some such prisoners whose families show absolutely no interest manage to make a few friends while incarcerated. That could help to some degree to fill the vacuum of having no loved ones on the outside who cared.

Perhaps it is my own personality type which brings me to the next point in this article. I am the type of person who desperately needs a few people to make me feel that they deeply care about my well-being. I do not need crowds of people showing adulation for me; however, I do need to feel that at least one person has a desperately close feeling toward me. I do have that good feeling and am reverently thankful for that fact.

Recently, someone who transgressed some laws in the USA has confessed to his crimes. As I watched the news programs on television, I learned that this person will be in an eight foot square cell with the only window shaded so he can not see natural light at all. His only lighting will be the twenty-four hour lighting in his cell. This person will be in that cell twenty-three hours each day and unable to communicate with anyone at all, not even the personnel of the prison.

It is difficult for me to think on this topic for very long. It is extremely scary for me to consider such a fate. How could I maintain any sense of sanity if I could have no communication at all with anyone for the rest of my life? The only sense of time passing would be the darkness I would be able to see through the shading on the window although my room would always have the same amount of light. How would I spend time? How unbearable such a fate would be.

All right, if the person committed a terrible crime, he needs to face the consequences of his wrong. Still, he is human and surely needs to have some degree of interaction with others of his own species.

I seriously doubt that solitary confinement for the rest of a person’s life is acceptable. I see no option but to conclude that it is very cruel punishment. From my studies, I assume that this is not an unusual punishment. It seems to be the ultimate punishment used in prisons. Regardless, my reasoning tells me that this kind of punishment is cruel.