Looking Death In The Faith

Deaths have been from ancient times, the question is in what attitude one dies.

A good number of Americans seem capable of ignoring death until it arrives personally for a friend or family member.

I've noticed that adults who read widely as children are more capable of handling misfortune than those who grew up in the Culture of Now.

Good topic, Walter.

Death's pain is relative to vicinity (physical, emotional or cultural). Everywhere.

If one was to put into a line, from the center of Baghdad, the coffins of Iraqi civilians killed by the recent bombings, it wouldn't reach the suburbs.

If one was to put into a line, from the center of Baghdad, the small coffins of children who died avoidable deaths during last year in Iraq (or Bangladesh, or Nigeria, or Peru), it would go past Nasiriyah (in some cases, it would easily surpass the Kuwaiti border). Every death a personal and family tragedy.

[This does not justify the war deaths, but is one of the reasons I find the "war kills children" argument so weak]

I've always been rather accepting of death. I've often identified with the saying from the moment your born you've begun to die. I'm not a dark or morbid person. I just tend to accept death as part of life. I've often noticed that people that don't tend to deal well with the topic often don't deal well with change in general. Hmm. . . . I think "Americans seem capable of ignoring death" because they tend to believe they can make things permanent for example the christian idea in our culture says that marriage should be permanent. We also don't tend to see death in person often. We don't tend to die young or from terrible diseases so what death we do see in the media we tend to approach with the same feelings one has toward death in movies. I'm a scientists so I guess I study I'm surrounded more with the reality and necessity of death more often than most Americans.

The dead children in Iraq possibly would not appreciate being written off as insignificant.

Their significance is emotional. Because we saw pictures of some of them. Because we now pay attention to them.
In terms of a person's own, unchangeable life, they're not more significant than the children who are dying of malnutrition, diarreah or AIDS in Pakistan, Nicaragua or Zambia.

No man is an island.....

Death - when perceived properly (on an individual personal
basis) is probably one of life's greatest teachers about how
to live your life. Our culture adores & worships youth, yet it
fears, denies & ignores death. Which is too bad. My own
personal feelings about death being our greatest teacher is
based on a very special day I had, when I truly began to
see & understand that I was going to die, for real. I don't
know where or when - yet. But I am certain it will happen.
How can I make good use of this information? Quite simple.
I look at my life as if it was a bag of quarters. Every single
day, I SPEND one of those quarters. As I grow older, I see
the size of my bag of quarters diminishing - so exactly HOW
I SPEND every one of these days I have left, now becomes
increasingly important. Every single time I talk with one of
my 3 daughters (who I adore) or my grandchildren (who I
also adore) on the phone, in person ... I tell them how very
much I love them. I never can know exactly when it might
be my very last chance to let them know how much I love
them - and I want to be SURE that they know that, always.
I understand now - that I am SPENDING MY LIFE. So, I also
have my "things to do before I die" list. On my list - there are
quite a few items already checked off. The year before last, on
our trip to San Miguel de Allende, in Mexico; I checked off not
only the trip to Mexico for several months, but I also got a chance
to go up in a hot air balloon & I took advantage of that!! What an
opportunity. I got to check one more item off my list. The balloon
was gorgeous - so bright and colorful!! Being up there, when
the jets were turned off, and we just coasted along - was so
silent and so peaceful - it felt absolutely heavenly. :wink:
Another item on that list - the maintenance of a healthy long
term relationship - even though I know it's very difficult, was
SO important to me. Never in my life had I been able to do
this, so with countless years of family therapy, years of my
learning how you do this kind of thing (I never learned any of
this stuff growing up, if what my parents had was a relationship,
I didn't want any part of such a thing!!!) I wanted to do some
meaningful things in my life and I feel like I have. Of course, my
list IS a bit overwhelming.....I'll have to win the Lotto to check
off some of those items, like a trip to the countryside of France
where they have those ancient castles & to England - to see
London & also the countryside in June. In fact, since I am
disabled with rheumatoid arthritis ... I have all the time, but
none of the money. But, who knows - I have a list and
THAT is what is important! I know my time is limited and I
don't kid myself about the nature of life anymore.According
to Morrie: "None of us is gonna get out of here alive."And
"you have to learn how to die - before you can learn how to live".
The culture we have today, doesn't work for us, we are all like
sleepwalkers. It isn't satisfying. It isn't gratifying. It IS all
about what's superficial - rather than what is real, true,
lasting, permanent, honest, spiritual, heartfelt & loving.
TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE - is a great book if you REALLY
want to get the skinny on what it's really all about. Morrie is
dying, and his former student - a young man, who doesn't
know how to live & is terrified of death,so they get together
each Tuesday & Morrie teaches his last class. The student (like
so many of we poor folks) has bought into this culture and so
everything in his life is geared towards more success, more
money, more fame, more more - more - more!! He begins
to see that he has much less of a life, than his dying professor
does. As he visits with his old professor - he sees what Morrie's
last class is about. It's all about DYING. So, he starts to squirm,
because for once; he is looking death in the face. The face of an
old man he loves. He sees his beloved old friend slowly dying
of Lou Gehrigs disease. Morrie is making a class out of it. He is
learning from the experience of dying all along. He has so many
friends, and fellow professors from the university, they have
regular discussion groups. Morrie is still teaching & is determined
that he is not going to just wither up and die. His contacts with his
friends, fellow professors, old students & his family increases.
His family want to stay with him, but he refuses to let them to
put their lives on hold. As the ALS progresses, Morrie becomes
more and more helpless. But he has so much more to talk about,
more to share with others. Morrie, the professor is a riot. As he
describes it - people find him far more interesting now that he's
dying. He says it is because he isn't dead - but he's not fully
alive; so people want to ask him lots of questions. Mostly they
want to know what to pack for the journey.
The basic idea Morrie sets forth is: if a culture isn't satisfying for
you - don't buy into it. Create your own culture. Decide what
"important" means to YOU personally, don't let anyone else do
it for you. Great idea. Good book. Death isn't all bad, after all.

By the way, GREAT TOPIC!

Nature has a mysterious way of reducing the world population to some manageable level of the human species. c.i.

Death is part of life.