I’ve been thinking a lot about death lately – not that I plan to do anything drastic, but having previously worked in the field and having another birthday as I struggle with the fact that I am physically unable to partake in many of the activities I used to enjoy. I also learned over the weekend that one of our neighbors had passed. It wasn’t anything necessarily shocking, as it was commonly known that he had cancer, but it was certainly a reminder of our mortality. A few months back, I learned that another neighbor had passed as well – this one I actually had interacted with, and had gotten fresh eggs from them in the past.
Now I’m not about to get all mopey and depressed about aging and the inevitable spectre of death, but it is something to be conscious of. We all are going to die – me, my wife, our pets, our families, our friends – nobody is safe from the grim reaper.
I remember a service I directed after my younger sister passed – a family came in to make arrangements for their father that had just died. They were talking about how sudden and unexpected it was, yet he was 97 years old and had been under hospice care for over a year. Sure, it could have been somewhat unexpected but anyone under hospice care isn’t planning on being around for very much longer. Sudden and unexpected is the young mother who died from internal hemorrhaging after a miscarriage and the hospital downplaying her complaints of unusual abdominal pain.
While I don’t think that everyone should live their lives in fear of anything that could lead to their demise, I do feel that we as a society need to embrace the fact that death is merely the next step in our existence. We are all going to die – period. Overly dwelling on it and worrying does nothing except make the years of living stressful. There are certainly things one can do to make their passing easier on those they leave behind (preneed funeral planning, a will and/or trust, asset documentation, etc), but that isn’t necessarily dwelling on one’s inevitable demise – it’s just planning ahead and being prepared.
The fact that we have a finite period of time to exist in our current form is what makes that existence valuable – it is what makes life worth living. If everyone lived forever, the value of life would be diminished.
Yet we must also consider that death is just a transition to another plane of existence. Some people call it your “soul,” others say “spirit” or “life force,” but it all really boils down to energy, and energy doesn’t disappear, it continues on in different forms. So while our corporeal bodies may cease to exist, our energy will continue on in other forms and other beings. The energy lives on as our old physical shell “decays” transforming into nutrients and energy for other forms of life. So even though our physical presence may vanish from the Earth, our life force will continue on in one form or another.
“Memento mori” – remember you must die.
Interesting Tidbits
Song of the day: The Spirit Carries On by Dream Theater
12 Funeral Foods And The Stories Behind Them – “Here are 12 funeral foods from throughout history — some recognizable, some not-so-much — and the stories behind them.” Of these listed, halva is my favorite – I arranged many muslim services and the imam even started teaching me basic Farsi. This was a staple at all those services.
Google’s plan to restrict sideloading on Android has a potential escape hatch for users – “Sameer Samat, President of the Android Ecosystem at Google, said, ‘Sideloading is fundamental to Android, and it’s not going anywhere.’ He added that the company’s new requirements aren’t designed to limit choice but rather to ‘make sure that if you download an app from a developer, regardless of where you get it, it’s actually from them.'”
DOJ Asks Judge to Keep Name of Two Epstein Associates Secret – “The network reported that their names were sealed ‘as part of the plea agreement’ and included a promise that the duo ‘would not be prosecuted.'”
Historians Found a 600-Year-Old Document Declaring the Shroud of Turin a Fraud – “Specifically, the study presents a newly rediscovered piece of writing, penned by the French theologian Nicole Oresme, which discusses the famed Shroud of Turin, a cloth that features the outline of a man’s face many believers purport to have been left behind by Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. And Oresme minces no words, outright declaring the object a fraud perpetuated by unscrupulous clergymen.”
Africa Just Built its OWN Internet – And it’s a Nightmare for Google and the West – “Coupled with the African Digital Protocol (ADP), the CIX establishes rules for data sovereignty—ensuring that African data remains within Africa unless intentionally exported. This shift protects citizens from surveillance, reduces dependency on foreign-owned platforms, and gives local innovators the infrastructure to thrive.”
Insect Horror: Mother’s Day – A fairly quick read and a gem in the usual slop found on the internet, inspired by David Attenborough’s narration of the Large Blue Butterfly’s life cycle.
The Biological Rulebook Was Just Rewritten—by Ants – “Iberian harvester ant queens clone males of a different species in a never-before-seen case of reproduction and domestication.”