Must They All Die?

Was it the curse of kindness? The price of fame? Or simply chance?

Famous actor. Gifted. Kind of heart. Loved by millions. Died in his sleep.

That was several years ago. Now, it has happened again.

A young actor. Promising. A bright future ahead of him. A perfect model of youth. Also died in his sleep.

Rico Yan and Marky Cielo. Both actors from the Philippines. Both idols of their generations. Both of generous and loving dispositions. Both died before coming within the reach of their primes.

At times like these, one can’t help but ask: Must they all die? Must all the upright and decent young men die long before they should? And what about those men (or even women; let’s not forget Julie Vega) who spend their lives by wasting it? Those who have nothing better to do than harass unsuspecting people, gulp down gallons of alcohol, smoke several packs a day, use illegal drugs and what not? Why don’t they die young? Is this some sort of joke played by the Universe to depress us or something? Is someone trying to tell us that if we carry on doing good things to ourselves and to others we would die early so it’s better to run amok every moment of our lives so we could live longer? That’s just sick…

The only consolation that we (or at least I) could get from those undeserved deaths is that it happened in their sleep. It may have been painless.

Someone told me that perhaps good people die early because they have already served their purpose on earth during the short time that they were here. How can that be true? I don’t get it—maybe because I don’t choose to, but I just don’t. So tell me, whatever happened to “we are all equals in Death’s eyes”?