EVERYONE Dies Eventually: My Thoughts On Death (And
Suicide)
01 September 2010By Jane Stillwater
Someone I know just died in her sleep. This person and
I had been at loggerheads with each other on a number
of political issues for the last 30 years but I still
wanted to say something nice about her -- and so I
came up with this: "She pissed me off so much that she
forced me to come up with much more interesting and
creative ways to overcome our disagreements -- which
has made me a better person for having known her."
She also got me started on the road to being a
political blogger -- because I figured that if I could
survive 30 years of local political in-fighting, then
taking on Cheney and Bush would be a stone cinch!
This person's sudden passing away also got me to
thinking about how none of us are immortal. None of
us. Her death came as a complete surprise to me, even
a shock. If this person could die, then death could
come sneaking up behind any of one of us, at any
moment -- and it will happen to all of us eventually.
EVERYONE dies. No one is immune. No one. Not even you.
Not even me.
So. As long as we have been granted the magical gift
of life, it seems clear to me that we should then be
duty-bound to do the absolute best that we can with
what we've been given. Fighting, killing, war, greed,
lying? That's just a stupid waste of our time. Instead
of just taking the low road, let's spend every
possible living moment striving to be the best that we
can -- 24/7. Think of Gandhi. Think of Jesus.
And for those of us who might sometimes envy the
newly-dead, who get discouraged and occasionally wish
that we too had finally Gone Home and were in some
nice coffin and being sung to by a nice choir -- so
that we would no longer have to trudge through our
days under a cloud and feel so much pain, then here's
a short lecture for you (and for me too). "We are
alive now. Let's take freaking advantage of it."
And for those of us who are committing suicide the
hard way -- by letting the earth get polluted and/or
eating ourselves into a coma, allowing baby-killing
nuclear waste to be created endlessly across the
planet, allowing greedy corporatists to tear down the
forests and kill the oceans that clean and filter our
air, allowing bankers to steal our homes, letting Wall
Street robber barons steal our jobs, drinking
ourselves to death and/or spending our time in
hundreds of other ways that we KNOW are unhealthy --
that's all just a stupid waste of time too.
Life is precious. Let's stop wasting it. It's like the
bumper-sticker says. "Life is a competition. The
winners are the ones who do the most good deeds."
Let's shape up, guys. No more killing. No more hatred.
No more pollution. No more greed. Sheesh.
You would think that at some point in time our
self-preservation instincts might finally start to
kick in -- but apparently they haven't so far. Clearly
we've let our world fall apart -- when everyone with
half a brain knows that we can do better. Much, much,
much better.
So I'm grateful to the person who died recently, if
for no other reason than because she gave me a huge
wake-up call regarding the urgency of death -- and the
urgency of life as well.
"Jane, you are starting to sound like one of those
wild-eyed crack-pot street-corner preachers who go
around shouting, 'Repent! The end is nigh!'" Yeah,
well?
PS: One of my friends was just telling me about Star
Children. "They are the new babies that are being born
today and they have a raised consciousness and empathy
and intuition and idealism. And they are arriving
right now -- now when we really need them."
"Hey, I was a Star Child once too!" I replied. Once.
Long ago. Before my idealism got all stomped on. It
was really hard to be a Star Child back then -- when
everyone around you was either fighting Adolph Hitler,
working on their atom bomb chops, enforcing
segregation, cheering on Joe McCarthy or trying to be
June Cleaver and the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.
"But it's not too late," answered my friend. "It's
never too late to become a Star Child."
PPS: When the human race starts to die out from war
and pollution in the next 20 years, the resulting
scenario will probably run something like this: All
those Americans who have consistently voted for
unnecessary wars, against maintaining important
government services and in favor of Wall Street
bailouts at the expense of the rest of us will just
smile in that infuriating Mona Lisa way that they have
and say, "We have nothing to worry about! We are under
the protection of God and Fox News!"
And God of course will be siding with us few remaining
idealistic liberal-blogger patriotic clean-environment
war-resister types (still hanging on here by our
toenails) who, following in the tradition of Jesus,
have tried to protect the downtrodden, to seek peace
and clean up the freaking air.
And all those Fox News guys like Rupert Murdoch and
Glen Beck will just continue to smirk down at you from
on high while you struggle to eat out of dumpsters,
choke on pollution and scratch at your
nuclear-waste-induced scabs. "We only needed you for
cheap labor, suckers," they'll say -- as they slam the
doors of their air-purified bunkers in your faces.
"And now that we have achieved our dream -- more cheap
labor than we will ever possibly need -- there's no
longer any need for you. Sorry about that." Not!
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments