What Does It Mean To Have An Ideal Death?
Good morning all! Well, to me it's morning because I'm writing this 9AM since I'll be in Kansas City today during the usual blogging time. But you all won't know the difference, so I could've just started this normally without having to explain my situation, but I did anyway...
I guess I could also just erase all of that first paragraph including this next paragraph explaining what I should've done in the first. Alright, let's get moving.
I came across this question today, "What does it mean to die well?"
Interesting question (if you're into death and enjoy sitting alone thinking about all its nooks and crannies, as I do) to ponder. It reminded me of another quote that I created or maybe someone else did before me, but I didn't look it up to check), "Have a good line." Imagine a tombstone. It's got the person's name, their date of birth, and their death date. In-between birth and death there's that line. That is basically the person's life. So, instead of people saying, "Have a good life." it's "Have a good line." so that people will remember your life when they see that line. I don't know, I think there's something there.
But, this isn't about life, this post is about death and what it means to die well. To find an answer, I have to talk about what it used to mean to die well. In early European history - and for a long time in the early church decades - people wanted to have long and painful deaths. The longer and more painful the better. They did this because in order to get into heaven, you needed to suffer and remove all your sins through suffering. I remember learning about that and being so confused.
I mean, now all we want for people is to die as quick and painless as possible. We pump people full of drugs so that they literally have zero pain when they pass. Because we don't want our loved ones to suffer. Even if someone just falls on the street; drops dead or like dies on impact we say, "Well, at least they didn't feel anything." Back in the old days, if someone just dropped dead it was terrifying for that family. They never got a chance to let out all their sins. That's a one-way ticket to hell! It's interesting how reversed we've come. It may be because we have grown to such a technological place that we have medicine that keeps us from dying so young. We've gotten used to no pain, so we have this mindset that pain is bad and any avoidance of it is better.
So, the idea of having an ideal death is very subject to different people. I think death is parallel to how we perceive life. Everyone's various perspectives on what it means to live a good life is the same as their perspective as a good death. People that like to live life on the edge may say that it's better to die in the moment in an exciting manner that will be remembered. Maybe some people prefer the painful death because they believe they deserve to suffer. It's a sad thought, but it's also extremely eye-opening. I say it a lot, but I think that's why we need to talk openly about death and what we think about it. The same with religion, and sex. We need to talk about these things to finally get rid of the oppression.
Tell me what you all think. Think about this. I'll see you all tomorrow.
Buh-bye.
I guess I could also just erase all of that first paragraph including this next paragraph explaining what I should've done in the first. Alright, let's get moving.
I came across this question today, "What does it mean to die well?"
Interesting question (if you're into death and enjoy sitting alone thinking about all its nooks and crannies, as I do) to ponder. It reminded me of another quote that I created or maybe someone else did before me, but I didn't look it up to check), "Have a good line." Imagine a tombstone. It's got the person's name, their date of birth, and their death date. In-between birth and death there's that line. That is basically the person's life. So, instead of people saying, "Have a good life." it's "Have a good line." so that people will remember your life when they see that line. I don't know, I think there's something there.
But, this isn't about life, this post is about death and what it means to die well. To find an answer, I have to talk about what it used to mean to die well. In early European history - and for a long time in the early church decades - people wanted to have long and painful deaths. The longer and more painful the better. They did this because in order to get into heaven, you needed to suffer and remove all your sins through suffering. I remember learning about that and being so confused.
I mean, now all we want for people is to die as quick and painless as possible. We pump people full of drugs so that they literally have zero pain when they pass. Because we don't want our loved ones to suffer. Even if someone just falls on the street; drops dead or like dies on impact we say, "Well, at least they didn't feel anything." Back in the old days, if someone just dropped dead it was terrifying for that family. They never got a chance to let out all their sins. That's a one-way ticket to hell! It's interesting how reversed we've come. It may be because we have grown to such a technological place that we have medicine that keeps us from dying so young. We've gotten used to no pain, so we have this mindset that pain is bad and any avoidance of it is better.
So, the idea of having an ideal death is very subject to different people. I think death is parallel to how we perceive life. Everyone's various perspectives on what it means to live a good life is the same as their perspective as a good death. People that like to live life on the edge may say that it's better to die in the moment in an exciting manner that will be remembered. Maybe some people prefer the painful death because they believe they deserve to suffer. It's a sad thought, but it's also extremely eye-opening. I say it a lot, but I think that's why we need to talk openly about death and what we think about it. The same with religion, and sex. We need to talk about these things to finally get rid of the oppression.
Tell me what you all think. Think about this. I'll see you all tomorrow.
Buh-bye.
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