Stupid People and Optimists tend to err rather largely when it comes to death, often into strict denial, or running to the biggest denial cause of all: "Jesus"! (or Buddha). I realize its very comforting and there's still a chance one of them is right. However, still being alive I prefer to deal with Death in more mortal terms. Recognize the stages of grief. Realize the person who died is NOT coming back from the dead. No amount of revenge will change that. Consider what that person would have wanted you to do: most likely to continue living rather than seek revenge or kill yourself (though I'm sure there are exceptions, even here). Its also important to remember that absolutely everyone will die, eventually. Many times, before they expect. IN these troubled times, death may come far more swiftly than it did in the past, and for people much younger. IN Japan, there's a buddhist saying which roughly translates to say your goodbyes for every parting could be your last. That means: live fully, without regrets. Many of us live very boring and reptitive lives, wage slaves who only live on the weekends. In the near future jobs will be rare, unemployment high, and free time common, so make good use of that. Consider it a sort of national vacation, at least until you're stuck in a press-gang digging ditches or working double shifts at a factory. Hope the conditions are good.
We will see people our own age, or younger, dying, sometimes while we're standing there. This was common in the early years of the industrial revolution, and maimings were too. Try to remember that volunteering to stick your precious extremeties into mechanical things is what STICKS are for. Death is going to come for our aging parents, who without all this good food and cheap medicines are going to die younger, and our children, who without strong immune systems and cheap medical care can easily succumb to food poisoning, fever, pneumonia, TB, and other plagues making the rounds right now. We'll have plenty to worry about surviving those ourselves, but its going to be hard watching the infant mortality rate rise, even if we can maintain civilization otherwise. Doctors work for money. If they don't get paid, they don't work, and the medical industry is rapidly heading for regulated wages, as well as a massive nursing shortage. Getting good medical care will be difficult in 5 years, even if there were no Peak Oil situation. No really.
Death... its going to sit on your doorstep. Its going to walk its toy poodle past your front walk. Its going to haunt the alleyways and bedrooms of unstable couples. Its one of those nasty things, and we're going to have to become comfortable with it, no matter how creepy that is. So wave hello to death and try to imagine it as a cute goth girl (Sandman).
Tags: health
Current Mood: creepy
