ODE TO DEATH

Death is terrible. Death is a tragedy. But death has a dignity. We should extend our gratitude to death. Because without death life has no meaning. Without death there is no love. Without death there is no beauty. Without death we don't even have families as we would move from one relationship to another in an everlasting manner. There would be no memories.

Death is both our mother and father. From nothingness we emerge and from nothingness we return. When the priest or the preacher says we are going to a better place, it's because we came from a better place.

Without death there would be no consciousness. We would reside in an eternal void. Why are moments so precious? Because they are brief in their beginning and in their ending. Life without death would reduce our existences to absolute meaninglessness.

Imagine a game. Take your pick from the scores we play. We'll settle on baseball. What would happen in there wasn't a result after nine innings? What would happen if the encounter lasted for hours, days, months and years without the finale of a winner or loser? There would be no satisfaction.

Does this rationale for death make a person's demise any easier? Of course not! We can accept an infant or an elderly person dying. This is a cold, hard reality difficult to endure, but we recognize this is the fate of vulnerable humans. But can even the most stoic of individuals survive the pain when a son or a daughter brimming with energy in the full of his or her youth is suddenly taken from us?

Does death in its pure philosophical sense seem so beautiful then? If we can't envision death's positive side, we can be broken for the remainder of our time on this insignificant orb. When something so dreadful turns so awful, then even the most profound knowledge is little more than wishful thinking.