Is there more to life than death?
Death is always a difficult topic to discuss.
I have been eternally thinking of it for as long as I have lived. Countless sleepless nights passed as I spent my time wrapping my head around the mere idea of death. As a few of my close acquaintances leave the world, I come to contemplate on it once more.
Some people fear the idea of death itself, some people embrace it like its their best friend, some people enjoy the bliss of ignorance of not even thinking of it, some poke it with a stick and maybe kicks it around, some tries their hardest to avoid it. And yet deep inside, we know that it is inevitable.
As Mortals, the concept of death is an undeniable fact of life. To “live” without being intermingled with the concept of death is just not possible. We take great strands in our lives to avoid it and see it as something frightening, when it is inevitable. Thinking about death itself is a challenge; as no one lived to tell the tale, we are perpetually stuck with our own minds on what happens to ourselves when death comes. Even so, that did not stop humanity from contemplating and theorizing on the concept of it.
Socrates, awaiting his own impending doom after being sentenced for not believing in the deities of Athens, believed that death can lead to two conclusions, one of a dreamless sleep and the other of a passageway; an afterlife where disembodied minds can freely express themselves without the burden of the physical being of the body.
In the modern era, we tend to think death as an extension from both of Socrates’s thought. With the former, the dreamless sleep, death is just a mark that we cease to exist in this world. And since we no longer exist, we no longer have a conscience and therefore no concept of knowing. It becomes irrelevant if we are happy or if we are sad, for we have lost the ability of either. Perhaps Epicurius said it best: “Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And once it does come, we no longer exist.”
How about the other one then? The passageway or afterlife which Socrates believes can be seen in the various religious beliefs present in the world. Buddhists believe in a cycle of death and rebirth called samsara. Muslims belief that death is the process to heaven, if said person has done the will of God during their life. This belief of a life after death may influence those who believe it, and some even spend their entire lives for the hope of a better life in the next process.
As with its inevitability, death is also unpredictable. We do not know when it comes, what size and shape it is. It can be a total bombshell, or it may be given. We know not when death will happen, nor who will face it. Many people fear death for its unpredictable nature.
Death is feared, even if it does not happen to us. We shall never know when we will die, nor how and where we shall die. Perhaps that is why we fear it so much, not fearing death itself but fearing the uncertain nature of it
We fear for the death of significant others, or even public figures that have no relationship with us. Sometimes, a death is celebrated; people rejoice in the idea of one no longer existing. Some mourn the deaths of others for days, weeks, or years. The impact of someone’s end may be remembered for many ages after they have passed, even if they may never did anything deliberate to be remembered.
To have hope on living an old age is just as uncertain as foreshadowing a quick death. I have accepted that death is inevitable and uncertain, yet I still hope I can enjoy the time given to me to have a full life, maybe even remembered more than just an obituary post in various social media accounts. Time on this earth is limited, and I wish to enjoy it best I can, and maybe even share that enjoyment to others.
I think that death should not be a moment of grief or one to be seen as negative. As with the many aspects of life that are inevitable, we should not see death as a thing that is unfair, or not meant to be, but rather a closing chapter in the bittersweet story of life.
