We hate talking about it so much we don’t even say the word. Not "passing," but death. In middle age, death starts to peep his little benighted head over the wall.
When a person is engaged in what we can call "life"—working hard, maybe raising children, building a home, having fun (remember that?)—it’s remarkably easy to forget death. But at a certain age death appears in your peripheral vision. Now I’m not suggesting that I can provide an answer that has eluded humanity’s greatest souls, but in midlife it’s still worth asking yourself, how should I approach the subject?
In Britain, there is a common phrase used to make light of a bad situation. "Cheer up mate, it might never happen" can be said on almost any occasion. The one subject for which it does not apply is mortality.
"It might never happen" is unfortunately not the case. And as you age you push the possibility of death harder and harder to the back of your mind as the reality of it gets closer and closer. Rather than turn to a religious figure or bearded philosopher for guidance, my first thought was to consider, as I do in all things, the words of Captain James T.
Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I thought about death a lot more as a child that I have done for the past 30 years. It was rather traumatic if I recall.
In three short years I had to deal with finding out Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father and the death of Spock. But Kirk did say this: "How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life." You cannot separate one from the other. Then in my later teenage years I watched Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, which despite its Swedish gloom, suggested that looking death in the face—or at least playing chess with him—was preferable to pretending he wasn’t there or screaming like a frightened child every time the idea popped into your head.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
