Death Becomes Us

Death. Modern medicine is making promises that we will all live to be 150. Everyday we make our attempts to cheat death, whether by eating well, exercising, or by using our anti-aging creams. It surprises us, scares us, and saddens us, even when it comes at a ripe old age. What we seldom realise is that death is a part of everyday life, not only because people die, but because death is an everyday occurrance.

There are many faces of death in everyday life, and some of them we actually see as good. My challenge to you is to see all of them as worthwhile, including when our physical bodies cease to dwell on this plane.

First, there is the renewal of our self. We are constantly becoming. One cannot become something new if one is not losing part of the old. We shed our metaphorical skins in order to mature, to advance in our thinking. This death is to be celebrated, taking the bad with the good.

There is also the death of our ego which happens on a regular basis. The word "mortify" (as in, "I can't believe I said that! I'm so mortified!") has its roots in the word "mort," or death. Being mortified is also not a bad thing from time to time, because it reminds us of our humanity and brings us to a new level of understanding.

One final thought on another "mort," called by the French "le petit mort," the expression used to describe an orgasm. To a certain extent, we die for the instant we are completely connected to another person to become the combined person. There is something very scary in completely losing yourself like that, but it is also very enjoyable.

Many things in life we try to avoid. But we cannot accept the good without the bad. They exist together, two sides of the same coin. What would happen if we stopped avoiding the negative, stopped pretending that every day we had to be happy to be "normal" and jumped headfirst into the "bad" experiences of life?


"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a Sunday afternoon." -Susan Ertz

"Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." -Mark Twain