I think the tendency in our culture to make it out as such a tragedy isn't all that healthy in some respects. Now granted, I'm not saying that we should all go out and kill ourselves, or kill other people. Far from it. But throughout the span on time, living creatures and this earth have been dependent on death. If you want to talk cliches, the “circle of life” is a good old die-hard (like my pun?) that is nevertheless rather apt in its description. It's ying and yang, it's dark and light; you cannot have one without a variation of what really is the same thing. Death is simply a state of being, a type of energy, when you get down to the atoms and basic building blocks of matter and energy.
So if we celebrate birth, why not celebrate death as well? A friend once told me that he wants his "funeral" to be a big party, and he wants people to laugh and celebrate, and I agree with him.
I also think suicide is a highly misunderstood phenomenon. While I know I would be distraught and sad if someone close to me did commit suicide, I feel the bravery required for such an act goes woefully unrecognized.
It's interesting, too, that it's a form of taking control of one's life. It's ironic. One takes control of one's life by making the decision to take it away, when one feel powerless in the day to day life. Now from a evolutionary perspective, sure, no creature should purposefully extinguish their own existence, and therefore limit their reproductive success. And yet, the very nature of living things... we are not immortal beings. We live for a time, and then we die. We usually don't have a say one way or another WHEN this occurs. There's a quote in firefly (the TV show) I really like: “Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carryin' a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is, die of old age before it finds you.” It's just a matter of how long it takes to find you, and how long you can outrun it.
It's quite poetic and true, I think.
We even die on a moment to moment basis; I am never the same person as I was a minute ago. A tree has to die in order for new trees to grow. People die at every second of the day and night. So to say that "so many people have died lately" is a little silly. People die all the time, and they are also born all the time.
Now this is not to say that everything is perfect, but I do believe that it is not as earth shattering as we make it out to be. The sun still rises, the earth still spins, and the universe is still expanding. As much as we want to hold on to even our closest friends and family... we are not them and can never realistically hold on to them, because control is a fleeting and mystical being that we never really touch.
And now for something completely different!
Good night! More updates on my trip to come soon!
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