Although during these last two years we have been witnessing a lot of deaths for one generation to handle, it still doesn’t change my perception of how I view death.
I was engaged in a conversation with my friend the other day in which she told me about her fears. Whenever she starts her car engine, she gets scared that life will be snatched away from her.
Something about the road makes her doubt herself and her life choices; it makes her think of the regrets and the unspoken words that would be buried with her if she met death on her way home. I know her fears are based on something, and I also know that she’s not alone.
A lot of people are playing hide and seek with life and death, but they are playing it their own way; they are seeking life yet constantly hiding from the end of it. Even when you put it that way, it’s not ironic; it’s actually significant because we know nothing about what happens after death, which draws fear on its own.
The afterlife is vague to all the human fantasies; we don’t know anything about it for certain. We haven’t died before to know the answer of whether death is painful or peaceful. It’s the end of here, and then comes the beginning of the unknown.
Consider this: If we learn how to view death from another perspective, we won’t fear it that much. It’s just like anything else; it’s the end of something and the start of another. If we looked at it that way, then maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t feel the urge to fit everything into one life and place, we would stop using YOLO as a life motto.
Because when you think about it, death is not the end. There’s no end, only a change of worlds. Take a moment and imagine how the world would be without all the choices, the human vanities, the selfishness, the unfairness and the ridiculousness.
This life is temporary and we’ve rooted ourselves to it, gluing ourselves to suffering and resisting anything that comes in the way of that. All of this will eventually end in a fraction of a second; you’ll get to rest then.
Life may not be beautiful, but paradise is. Death may be a lot of bad things but it’s not a tragedy, it’s serene, it’s meaningful, it’s a reminder, it prepares and it provides closure. Now who would want to fear that?