I haven't written a blog in a while so I decided to jump back in with a light happy blog about death! That was sarcastic in case you couldn't tell. Death is not a light or happy topic, but, at least for me, it is a very intriguing one. A lot of people try to avoid death completely and others seem to embrace it unnaturally, but regardless peoples' reactions to death, the reason behind them is almost always because we are uncomfortable with it.
I've been thinking about death recently due to the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili on his luge training run last Friday. Death seems like it should be the most natural of all life's events, afterall, every single person experiences it at some point, yet, death is strangely unnatural to many people. There is something that just seems wrong or off with death. It does not seem like it should happen, yet there is no way to prevent it. Occasionally death seems a little more normal when someone has lived a long, full, happy life, and they die quickly and peacfully, however, even in those cases, death is surrounded with grief and tragedy, and those left are left with a sense of loss, as if something went awry somehow and a hole is now left. And that is death in its best circumstances. More often than not, death does not come peacefully to those who have lived full lives. It comes suddenly, painfully, shockingly, and to anyone from babies, to children, to young adults, to middle aged people, to the elderly. When death comes unexpectedly and suddenly it leaves more than just grief. It rips the fabric of people's lives apart, bringing grief, tragedy, depression, loss, and hopelessness that leaves a dark void, which can often bring about more death. How can this be natural?
I have seen and experienced death in many different ways, and let me tell you what should NOT happen.
A wife and mother should not have to receive a call telling her that her husband was killed in a car wreck on the way to work. That he will not be coming home, that he he will not see his daughter and son grow up.
Parents should not have to watch their son die of disease and then a few years later receive a call that their daughter was killed in a car wreck.
A son should not have to watch his mother slowly die of cancer, slowly forgetting everything, and becoming unable to even speak, as he cares for her in his home.
Parents should not have to experience the extreme joy of bringing a child into the world, be told everything is great with their baby, and then experience their child's death the next day.
Parents, friends, and girlfriend should not have to receive a call that their son, friend, and boyfriend was riding his motorcycle home and crashed and died.
A mother should not have to watch as her son slowly dies of disease.
These are just a few of the experiences with death that I have personally seen. There are many many more, and every one is tragic. I am left wondering, why, if death is so natural does it seem so wrong. Even many animals recognize a certain problem with death, and we can see elephants mourning when one of them dies. There are many thoughts and ideas and branches that can be taken to look at this topic of death, but I am not going to explore them all here. Death saddens me to no end, especially when it is sudden, and I find myself truly grieving when I hear of people dying, even if I have never heard their name, and when I think about it, I come to the conclussion that death seems so unnatural because it is. We are not meant to die. We were never intended to be mortal, and a part of us, still, is immortal, so when we see death we are disturbed, because it goes against what we were meant to be.
I am going to stop there and not go into anything else as far as why we now die, or what is immortal. I am sure you can guess my thoughts on that, but I am interested to hear what you think. It's a tough topic, and I just sort of threw out some loose ideas here, what are your ideas on either mine, or on death in general? One last question: This blog is entitled SADness and Truth, so death is definitely the sadness, can there be truth and joy discovered within the sadness? I believe that yes there is, but I want to know what you think.
