If life is so great, then why is death so lonely?

[AnIndependentTexan]

If one is willing to grow they must first accept death as part of life. If you run from death then you run from life.

[NC_Nurse]

1. Did you just finish exams or something?

Philosophy 101 perhaps?

Let me share one of my fav quotes:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand, strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - what a ride!"
- Tom Rossi

[AnIndependentTexan]

2. nah, it is just a hobby of mine that love to think about

[MuseRider]

4. That is a wonderful

quote. A friend sent it to me the other day. I loved it. Thanks for supplying the credit, there was not one with the mail he sent.

[ogradda]

3. I hope it's not lonely.

I'm looking forward to seeing my dad and grandmothers again.

[Solon]

5. I don't think death can be lonely...

always helps to take a few people along with you. :evilgrin:

[illflem]

6. I want to die peacefully in my sleep like grandpa

not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car did.

[AnIndependentTexan]

7. but then why do people fear their own death and hide from living?

Are people really living if the fear of death is all they have to live on?

[pretzel4gore]

8. maybe it's the crushing oppression of a hopeless life

for most human beings each day is a dreary battle to preserve something of the dignity and innocence THEY ALL KNOW they were born with....somehow the rightwing, who hold the masses in contempt, have communicated their contempt to the masses, with the proviso that TO BE DIFFERENT all one needs to do is support bushinc and so on....i think jesus christ for example, was one of those who warned humanity that this could happen (the 'privilege of the few' is really exciting while the 'needs of the many' bores everyone to tears!)

[manic expression]

9. Life and death

are one. They are essential parts of the same eternal cycle which is how everything exists. Both lead inevitably to each other.

[Individualist]

10. So true

This excerpt from William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis pretty much sums it up.

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

[despairing optimist]

14. I prefer Oscar Wilde's last words (perhaps apocryphal)

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

Few of us will enjoy the privilege of an elaborate, "reasoned" death, though we can intellectualize and spin about it as much as we want during our lifetimes. It's often an ugly affair up close, especially when it's someone we love. The body shuts down bit by bit physically and mentally, and we stand by helplessly awaiting the end. That's why our youth- and pleasure-loving culture tries to deny and ignore death, as well as to isolate those who are dying--as if the living could somehow be granted a reprieve or even immortality if they turned away.

My hat is off to all hospice workers who face the reality of death every day and keep going back for more. The kindnesses they show the dying are nothing less than heroic. I don't know how they do it, but they're high on my list for financial support.

[indigobusiness]

24. It is seldom pretty.

I couldn't agree more about hospice workers.

[kalibex]

11. Death = Change

We're creatures of habit.

So we spend a certain amount of time b1@tching & moaning about it. :evilgrin:

-B

[indigobusiness]

12. DEATH ANGEL------ by Dr. Jabir...............aka Nick Herbert

DEATH ANGEL

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
When She catch my wary eye
Will I see in Her face
all that I have ever loved
reflected back as in a magic mirror?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
When She take my hand in Hers
Will it feel like stumbling backwards into a piece of music?
Will death be like falling back into dreamless sleep?
Will death be like dissolving back into the elements?
back into Carbon, Nitrogen & Phosphorus?
back into the Earth?
back into the Air?
back into the Water, the Fire, the luminiferous Ether?
Will dying resemble falling into Black Vacuum?
Will dying remind me of falling in love?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
When She kiss me with Her promiscuous mouth
Will Her kisses drive me out of this world?
out of this body?
out of this mind?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
When She take me in Her ancient arms
Will Her beauty take my breath away?
Will Her beauty make me blind, make me deaf?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
When She strip the clothes from my body
Will Her eagerness make me out of breath?
out of sight?
out of hearing?
out of here?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
When She press Her irresistable body to mine
How will Her angelic skin feel to my touch?
What will death smell like?
How will She taste?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
Will She be That One Woman
I have been seeking all my life
In the arms of others?

When I meet the angel of death
Will She be lovely and voluptuous?
Will She be That One Woman
I have been dying to meet?
---
http://members.cruzio.com/~quanta/kali.html

[VioletLake]

13. Death is nothing without life. n/t

[indigobusiness]

16. And vice versa

[VioletLake]

19. I'll dance to that. ;) n/t

[ismnotwasm]

15. The first function of the human body is survival

All else kinda just follows along....

[indigobusiness]

17. As the angel of death approaches, it is horrific.

Once it arrives, it is bliss.

[neverforget]

18. The only time you're not dead is when you're alive.

High philosphy from neverforget :-)

[Kathryn7]

20. Death is just the beginning. Looking forward to it myself.

Lots of family and friends on the other side.

[indigobusiness]

21. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Not human beings having a spiritual experience.

[Malva Zebrina]

22. Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

he could not accept his father's death, and perhaps his own someday.

Death is the end of a life. Hopefully, those of us who are freed by the recognition and accept it, do all we can to leave something positive behind to those who survive us.

And if we don't--well, that's life!

[indigobusiness]

26. Malva...do you know Mulva?

Great poem.

[Malva Zebrina]

27. No and I am afraid to find out

pic of Malva Zebrina

[indigobusiness]

28. Beautiful! Mulva is from a 'Seinfeld' episode...

where he forgets a girlfriends name, but remembers it rhymes with a woman's body part. He keeps mumbling guesses. Mulva was one of them.

Turns out, her name was Delores.

[donheld]

23. I do not run from death, nor do i run toward death.

When it happens i just hope it's painless. I spend very little time worrying about what happens after my death.

[indigobusiness]

25. Life is precious.

So is death.