Death

“Death and Life dance together until the Grim Reaper has his way with Her”.

What a way to name our number one fear, the Grim Reaper. Not a very merry character, au contraire, Death has always been pictured in a somber and sinister manner. But why?

Death is the event that gives life its meaning. Without it, we would probably insist upon it, we would have invented it.

For life eternal on this planet with our very limited resources, personal and global, would be intolerable. Just imagine that a scientist invents a cure for death; everybody can live forever, replacing a damaged part when necessary. How utterly boring, utterly devastating to contemplate not 20 centuries, as Napoleon said while perched on the pyramids, but forever and ever.

Marriages would become useless; no reproduction needed or wanted, since we are already too crowded. The very meaning of life would disappear. So Death was created (by God? Maybe). Perhaps Death did not exist in the Garden of Eden and perhaps we became mortals when God kicked us out. But we prefer to believe that Death as pictured by so many philosophers does not exist; rather, we see a transition to another state, whether better or worse is still debatable.

For most people it is a thing to fear, even though they know it is inevitable. We have all read some articles regarding what has become known as NDE (Near Death Experiences), in which the persons involved not only report seeing themselves lying on an operating table, but also perceiving a bright light that seems to call them to an eternal bliss. They awake feeling completely different, having lost their fear of death; an intense feeling of peace of mind has also been reported.

This fact alone should tell us that there is something after death, another type of life apparently devoid of conflict. If that is the case, who knows what consequences our actions here on Earth have on the Other Life.