Laurens
New Member
Hello,
I thought I would start a nice cheery topic to lift everyone's mood a bit.
Death has been on my mind quite a bit the past few days. On Wednesday my teacher (and father of one of my good friends) collapsed and was rushed to hospital, I later found out that he died of a heart attack :cry: he was a lovely guy and a great teacher.
It's my first close experience of death in my adult life - the last was my grandfather who died when I was a child, so I wasn't really at an age where I could reflect upon it that much.
The first thing I was thinking about is who unresolved it leaves things, the last I saw of him I didn't even say goodbye, I just walked out of the class with the assumption that I'd be seeing him the next day. Most of us would like to be able to say our last goodbye to someone, or to be able to say goodbye to all our loved ones when we die but it rarely works like that. There must be so many people who die perhaps after having some argument or disagreement with a loved one that never gets resolved.
That leads me to the second thing I was thinking of, how the nature of death is both certain and uncertain at the same time. The certainty is that we are all going to die one day, the uncertainty is that we have no way of knowing when, or at least extremely rarely we do. I could go out for a walk today cross the road without paying attention and get hit by a car and that could be it for me. This could be my last post. It's hard to keep in our minds, most of us would prefer not to start our day thinking that we might die - but in some ways it enriches things, it makes you not want to leave unresolved conflicts, to not leave people without saying a hearty goodbye, it makes you want to make the best of every day.
We have no real choice over the kind of death we have. Most of us would like to go peacefully, having said a tearful goodbye to all our loved ones as they stand weeping at the bedside, but we have no real choice in the matter.
I have no fear of death itself, there would be no me left - it would be the same as it was before I was born. My real fear is to die painfully, leaving things unresolved, and without saying goodbye. There's no way of achieving certainty that I can die in the way I want, and that unsettles me.
Anyway I don't quite know where I'm going with this, I just had some things I wanted to get off my chest. I thought maybe we could discuss the philosophical implications of death...
I thought I would start a nice cheery topic to lift everyone's mood a bit.
Death has been on my mind quite a bit the past few days. On Wednesday my teacher (and father of one of my good friends) collapsed and was rushed to hospital, I later found out that he died of a heart attack :cry: he was a lovely guy and a great teacher.
It's my first close experience of death in my adult life - the last was my grandfather who died when I was a child, so I wasn't really at an age where I could reflect upon it that much.
The first thing I was thinking about is who unresolved it leaves things, the last I saw of him I didn't even say goodbye, I just walked out of the class with the assumption that I'd be seeing him the next day. Most of us would like to be able to say our last goodbye to someone, or to be able to say goodbye to all our loved ones when we die but it rarely works like that. There must be so many people who die perhaps after having some argument or disagreement with a loved one that never gets resolved.
That leads me to the second thing I was thinking of, how the nature of death is both certain and uncertain at the same time. The certainty is that we are all going to die one day, the uncertainty is that we have no way of knowing when, or at least extremely rarely we do. I could go out for a walk today cross the road without paying attention and get hit by a car and that could be it for me. This could be my last post. It's hard to keep in our minds, most of us would prefer not to start our day thinking that we might die - but in some ways it enriches things, it makes you not want to leave unresolved conflicts, to not leave people without saying a hearty goodbye, it makes you want to make the best of every day.
We have no real choice over the kind of death we have. Most of us would like to go peacefully, having said a tearful goodbye to all our loved ones as they stand weeping at the bedside, but we have no real choice in the matter.
I have no fear of death itself, there would be no me left - it would be the same as it was before I was born. My real fear is to die painfully, leaving things unresolved, and without saying goodbye. There's no way of achieving certainty that I can die in the way I want, and that unsettles me.
Anyway I don't quite know where I'm going with this, I just had some things I wanted to get off my chest. I thought maybe we could discuss the philosophical implications of death...