From the time that I was very young it was clear to me that vegetables tasted like shit. I mean you hear it everywhere, your friends don’t like eating vegetables, kids in shows don’t like eating vegetables, and the only reason you’re told to eat them is because they are good for you. Until recently I refused to eat most vegetables, until I realized it would take some conscious effort to get over the mental blockades that I had formed over the years. These blockades we create are often formed by what we experience around us, and for me, that experience was that vegetables were bad.
So there’s no good way to segue into this topic, so let’s just talk about some death. First off let me put it out there, death really fucking sucks, I’m not disputing that, but I think that it may be time to look at death in a different way. Death is tragic in the sense that the person you knew will never have the opportunity to interact with you again, however I believe that death is not all tragedy, on the contrary actually.
When one dies they are relieved of all worldly stresses and duties, of any pain they may have been experiencing, and of the fear of death. Our fear of death is intense, and weighs upon many with great force. Many say that we fear death because we fear the unknown, I don’t think that is true. I think we fear death because all of our lives we are told that death is something that we must fear. We have this feeling of responsibility to be sad after a death, to only speak well of the deceased, and to respect their remains. All of these things makes death a quite scary and unpleasant experience for the living.
What I propose is simple; let’s take death at face value. Let’s acknowledge the pain of someone leaving but also be happy for the relief the death has brought to the ones who are deceased. Let’s not perform funerals in all black, in dark buildings and graveyards for all to see and wallow in. Let’s change our perception of death. Instead let’s celebrate the lives the dead have lived, speak of them truthfully, and acknowledge that death is just another part of life. If we can get over these mental blockades we have about how terrible death is, then maybe one day we can make the end of our lives seem a little less doomed and a little more hopeful.