The cold, stark reality of life lies in its end – Death. I sometimes find myself wondering why death is associated with so much grief?
I think it’s not what death takes away with it that causes as much sorrow as what it leaves behind. I think the loneliness, poverty, shock, terror and a myriad of such circumstances that those living find themselves in is what makes death grim. Added to that is the knowledge, which can be disturbing yet encouraging, that the end is certain. That death is waiting for you, somewhere, sometime. But can any one be prepared for death, one's own or some one else's?
I can often see humour in most things in life. I would like to believe so. But the humour in death eludes me. Can death be viewed from a detached perspective?
What scares me about death is not that I am going to be in its claws someday. I often say, sometimes even believe it to be true, that if I were to die tomorrow I wouldn’t care. I don't know how many would. I seriously joke though that if it should happen, I be told before so I can tie up some loose ends. Like get that hair cut I always wanted, or take a quick trip to that one place I absolutely want to see, or have my favourite foods, drink myself silly. The list is endless.
What really scares me about death though is when it is going to take away some one close to me. I know that life would move on. But even the thought of the inevitable scares the heck out of me. What scares me even more is what if when it happens, I have a detached reaction. What if it fails to move me? What if I move on with my own life like nothing ever happened?
Life is unfair, we have all complained at some point I am sure. But is death any fairer? What about when death eludes someone who is suffering, waiting for it? What about when death snatches away someone who is happily looking forward to living?
I think death serves a far greater purpose to life than life itself. It teaches one to value life. It teaches one to live for the moment, in the moment. It prods one to live every moment of their life like that might be the last moment!
But when am I going to wake up to death's call ...I wonder!! What if I never do? What if death picks me up before I have that hair cut???
3 comments:
Now that u spell it out like that , It does scare me that maybe I wont have the chance to do something that I have always wanted to. Well written and u hit the nail on the head when u said death serves a far greater purpose than life itself because we truly wont value life if death didnt exist.
its not what death leaves behind. its what it doesnt.
remember that anecdote about 'a joe shaped whole' in God of small things...? i love it... mostly its the realisation that so far, i had a mother, however old, feeble or useless, who i could talk to (maybe she's deaf, but still) or a loved one you could talk to whenever you felt like...
wat if that person wasnt there? maybe theres no difference in you activities, but you are missing something yr so accustomed to
but i think thats not just in death, even in relationships that break up......
Prashant: I know I know. So go on do all that you want to do in life!
Ab: I haven't read God of small things, so I don't really know what that anecdote is
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