Death

Death…the end of an existence. Is it the end of life as we know it and the beginning of another one?  A new journey starts when the present one comes to an end?  To some it is a welcome option.  To others it is shunned since it is considered emotionally disturbing and of the utmost taboo.  Death is in actual fact the last taboo.   Death is celebrated, embraced and also feared. 

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If it is so bad, if it is so awful and unpleasant that most people don’t even remotely want to talk about it, why would it be that it’s welcomed with open arms by a select few?  Could it be the case that one’s life is so bad, one’s life is so awful and full of sorrow or even riddled with pain that the face of death is a better choice to opt for?  What is death after all?  Who decides who has to die now and who decides who has to die later?  Is there a superior being, an entity that decides ones’ fate?   Do we know when we are going to die?  Do we know what happens after we die?  For the Roman Catholic Church death is the complete and final separation of the soul from the body.  Your soul is set free from your body and it ends up lifeless, a carcass that rots away progressively with every second that passes, leaving the skeleton which will eventually turn back into dust.

 
It is a fact that many of us have at one point or another, contemplated quite deeply about this subject, morbid, cold and tragic as it might be.  We all have at one point or another in our life reached a state which is completely beyond our control after having sunk so low that we can’t really sink any lower.  All our doors would seem to have been permanently slammed shut.   All hope would vanish and everything would seem lost.  Thoughts of an escape from everything and everyone would come to mind, thoughts of death will gradually follow.  Such shallow thoughts could be related to a financial disaster, to the loss of one’s job perhaps, or due to the side effects of a vice that puts one in a state of misery.   Family members have needs, they have demands and being financially ruined won’t assist them with acquiring their essentials but brings about desperation and extreme anxiety, eventually effecting ones’ health considerably in the process.  On the other hand, such shallow thoughts could be related to one’s poor state of health for which there is no known cure.  Only pain and suffering remain, and death would remove all these…forever.  No more grief, no more sorrow, no more heartache…just peace and quiet till the end of time.  Such a welcome alternative!  No more problems, no more anguish, no more headaches, no more unhappiness…nothing…nothing at all…just peace and more peace.

The ultimate way to pass over to the other side is to do so in ones’ sleep.  The transition would be swift, painless and peaceful.   You’ll just go to sleep on your bed, close your eyes…never to open them again.  No other way can better it but alas this is not within our capabilities…or is it?  It can be arranged if one wishes to end it all prematurely.  There are ways to terminate ones’ existence if living has been one full of hurt or injustice of whatever form.  
 
Death however, is life’s ultimate mystery.  Once gone beyond living, there is no turning back.  There is no second chance once you go beyond a point of no return.   It is permanent.   Who indeed knows what happens after death.  Is it a better life?  Is it a worse life?  Is there actually a life after death?   Religions maintain that there is some kind of afterlife or reincarnation.   I don’t think I would want to be born again after I die, especially if I die out of my own free will, of my own hand.  Once gone I wouldn’t want to start all over again.  I wouldn’t want to start again going through constant struggles and anguish of every type imaginable.  Once gone I would want to remain gone, finished…no more.   I wouldn’t want to start another journey for this present one has been so very turbulent and too emotionally devastating.  I too have looked upon death, for death is no alien to me, as a form of relief to the pain I endure, which although not of a physical nature, still brings me down to my knees in agony every time it strikes.   Occasionally it becomes too great a weight to go on shouldering.