Writing on the Subject of:

Fear of mortality and avoiding its reality.

None of us seems a psychologically able to cope with the thought of our own state of death, with the idea of a permanent unconsciousness in which there is neither void nor vacuum -- in which there is simply nothing. it seems so different from the nothing that preceded life. As with every other looming terror and looming temptation, we seek ways to deny the power of death in the icy hold in which it grips human thought. It's constant closeness has always inspired traditional methods by which we consciously and unconsciously disguise its reality, such as folk tales, allegories, dreams, and even jokes. In recent generations, we have added something new: We have created the modern method of dying. Modern dying takes place in the modern hospital, where it can be hidden, cleansed of its organic blight, and finally packaged for a modern barrio. We can now in denying the power not only of death but of nature itself. We hide our faces from its face, but still we spread our fingers just a bit, because there is something in us that it cannot resist a peek.

On the trouble free death we hope for.

Like most mythologies, it is based on the inborn psychological need that all humankind shares.  The mythologies of death are meant to combat fear on the one hand and its opposite -- wishes -- on the other.  They are meant to serve us by disarming our terror about what the reality may be.  While so many of us for a swift death or a death during sleep “so I won't suffer," we at the same time cling to an image of our final moments that combines graced with a sense of closure; we need to believe in a clear -- minded process in which the summation of a life takes place -- either that or a perfect lapse into agony free unconsciousness.

On the life cycle.

Mankind cannot afford to destroy the balance - the economy, if you will - by tinkering with one of the most essential elements, which is the constant renewal within individual species and the invigoration that accompanies it. For plants and animals, renewal requires that death proceed it so that the weary may be replaced by the vigorous. This is what is meant by the cycles of nature. There is nothing pathological or sick about that sequence -- in fact, it is the antithesis of sick.  To call a natural process by the name of the disease is the first out in the attempt to cure it and thereby or thwart it. To thwart it is the first step towards thwarting the continuation of exactly that which we try to preserve, which is, after all, the order and the system of our universe.

On death as a natural part of living:

Quoting from a series of letters, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams near the end of his life. “There is a rightness of time for death regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth.  When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another."

Why do we persist in heretofore - vain attempts to live beyond the possible?  Why cannot we reconcile ourselves to the immutable pattern of nature?  Although recent decades have seen our concern with our bodies and their longevity reach a fever pitch unknown to previous generations, these kinds of hopeful seeking have always motivated at least some members of the society that have records of their existence as early as the days of ancient Egypt there is evidence of attempts by elders to prolong their lives -- the Eppers papyrus of more than 3,500 years ago contains a prescription for restoring an old man to youth. There is a vanity and all this and it demeans us. At the very least it brings us no honor.  Far from being irreplaceable, we should be replaced. Fantasies of staying the hand of mortality are incompatible with the best interests of our species and the continuity of humankind's progress. More correctly, they are incompatible for best results of our very own children. Tennyson says it clearly. “Old men must die or the world must grow moldy, and only breed the past again.”

There is a framework of a living into which all pleasures and accomplishments fit -- and pain, too.  Those who live beyond their nature-given span - lose their framework, and with it lose a proper sense of relationship to those who are younger, gaining only the resentment of youth for encroaching on its careers and resources. The fact that there is a limited right time to do the rewarding things in our lives is what creates the urgency to do them. Otherwise we might stagnate in procrastination.