The Ironies of How People View Death

There are people so deep in fear they commit suicide

Photo by Tanya Nevidoma on Unsplash

There are people who…

1. Fear death
2. Go deeply into mourning when loved ones die
3. Mourn not at all for their great-grandparents who died
4. Will never forget the time they saw a child die
5. Fail to remember the baby they miscarried
6. and certainly never have a funeral mass for it
7. Are terrified by the pandemic, but
8. won’t make the changes needed to prevent the next one
9. Think they’re dying from a panic attack
10. and won’t do what the gentle therapist suggests: The try to die method
11. Fear we’re all going to die in the Sixth Mass Extinction, yet…
12. support cash stipends for people who have lots of children
13. and who won’t give up the cars and conveniences of city life.

There are also people who:

1. Enjoy life
2. Are bemused by the apparent collapse of economies and civilization…
3. but hope to die before the collapse takes everybody down
4. Have mourned their own future death for so long they feel no fear
5. and have turned their gaze backward to review a life well-lived
6. They stir the pot of philosophies they’ve tried and distill them into a unity.

People in either group are capable of suicide. The ones in the latter group may choose to terminate early if dying in agony. The ones in the former group . . . it’s more likely from a feeling of hopeless desperation . . . possibly it’s what is called a mental illness.