Death

[Anonymouse]

Do you fear it? Or do you not care? Or do you proclaim that you "don't care" and "don't fear death", yet in your conscience you do fear it?

I have not had anyone close to me pass away. My earliest memory of death was in Armenia when my grandmother's sister died. I was about 5 or 6. I remember walking by the open casket, unphased. I knew she had died, and yet I didn't think anything of it.

Throughout other people have died, mostly relatives not too close, and friends, but it has never hit home. My grandfathers died before I was born thus I never saw what it was like.

Does death change the way you perceive life? Having lived through the death of a loved one, has it affected how you view life? Are you ever the same?

[Anonymouse]

[Stark Evade]

Two close relations of mine have died, one of which was the most painful experience of my entire life. Though it has been nearly three years now, it feels like it was two months ago and I still get very upset. However, aside from creating ripples of pain, I don't feel such experiences create long term changes in peoples' outlooks and personalities. It's a source of pain that doesn't leave but I'm as I always was and I'd expect that to be the case with most people most of the time. If you get a cut on your arm and it leaves a scar it will be with you always but your arm will work as it should.

I do fear death and dying. Most people fear death -- those who do not usually have some sort of comforting fairytale about what awaits after life -- except for my father who is also agnostic but only really fears dying ("Death is a problem for the living," he says) -- and nearly all people fear certain forms of dying. By that I mean, how many people would be truely at peace with the idea of death by suffocation of anykind... or being eaten alive?

[jgk3]

Death is a kickass band.

I just know that when I die, I want to be happy. For my loved ones, I'll make my spirit live on through songs I leave behind, and they can communicate to my spirit by listening to those, as I write songs as mirror images of what I imagine and feel. So in the end, I don't feel bad about my death. However, I'd feel deep pain of loss should anyone close to me die. But their spirits will never vanish in my mind, they will always be a part of me, they will continue to live in my heart.

[Stark Evade]

Cynic was a better band.

[TomServo]

Dying sucks.

[One-Way]

I don't really care if I die, so I don't really fear it, but I'm always paranoid about family and close friends. I always think about people close to me dying and it scares me - but that's all.

[jgk3]

Cynic was a better band.

About that, I've been longing to hear some Cynic mp3s, do you have any?

[spiral]

Here’s an excerpt from a book I just finished reading.

Somewhat relevant.



"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How may more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."

--Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

[TomServo]

That book was made into a film. That's all I know.