A Very Morbid Addition of AOVW

Hey guys, how is everyone doing out there in the world? What's new in your lives since my last blog? Have you reached some previously unreachable goal? Have you met new people, or did something spontaneous? Or, have you, like myself, simply been pushed along through your experiences without a real care in the world?

Well whatever the case may be, there is something that I know has been at the back of your mind this entire time. Something that you may or may not have even realized is there...

Death.

  Now that's a pretty big claim to make, and if my calculations were correct, may have made some of you feel a bit uncomfortable. Yet death is not something that we really need to fear. If you put into perspective the idea of death, and how it works, then the horrific images of the grim reaper become almost comical in their nature. However, before I get into the meat of my musings here, I would like to explain why the topic of death has been prominently at the forefront of my thoughts. 


Recently, (about two weeks ago at this point) I found myself in a situation in which I thought one of my parents had died. (I'm going to keep the details fairly vague in order to prevent embarrassment on the part of either party,) This situation lasted for a good six hours, until I finally got word that my parent was alright, and had instead been the victim of severely bad luck. In the end, everyone was fine. However the amount of stress and fear that I felt within those six hours, is something that I had never experienced before in my life, and led me to begin questioning death, and our somewhat irrational fear of dying.

Now let me preface this by saying that this blog post my get rough for some of you out there. I do not mean to belittle anyone's beliefs, and I certainly don't want to upset anyone who has lost a loved one. I personally feel as though worrying about the death of others is probably more valid than worrying about your own. But the point of this post is to simply discuss why we worrying so much to begin with.

Death is a part of life, that's simple enough right? Although people tend to separate life and death and two separate ideas, I see death as simply another part of life, just like birth. Just as everyone who has ever lived has been born in some context or another, everyone will eventually die. We sometimes feel immortal or exempt from death because of our age, power status, or perhaps even the hope that immortality will become a reality in the future.(We will touch on that a little later.) Despite all of these minor differences, death is coming for all of us eventually. So why worry?

Once upon a time, a theorist (who's name I am sadly blanking on), made the suggestion that perhaps the entirety of our society is merely a big distraction from the big question of death. He theorized that maybe people can not deal with the biggest of unknowns, and have created their own personal distractions through their jobs, their relationships, and the rest of their culture. We create these new problems so that we have other things to worry about, rather than focusing on the issue of our own mortality. Perhaps this man was right (and please if you are familiar with this theory, kindly remind me of his name), and yet death has a way of creeping into our lives on a regular basis. We are fascinated with the idea of our own demise. Just before I began writing this, I heard this song on the radio

Seems fitting. However if it's not music then it's TV or film. The show "1000 Ways To Die" anyone? I mean sheesh, my last blog post was about a game that rewards skill with the chance to brutally murder your opponent in hilariously brutal ways.



Now this is the part that could get upsetting for some....(play the video below for the full effect)

                                                                        GOD

If you didn't think that we worried about death before, then welcome to the wonderful world of religion. Without getting into the morbid imagery of the crucifixion that certain sects of Christianity seem all to willing to parade around. "Look he died for our sins...died...dead...death...DEATH... DEATHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Get the idea?

However ignoring all that, and just focusing on the ideas behind religion. Religion, whether you are a devout believer, or not, can still be seen as a way in which people deal with the pain and confusion that come from a misunderstanding or fear of death. When someone dies, people will exclaim that they "Are in a better place", and it's nice to think that when we die, we get to relax and hang out in paradise for the rest of eternity. It also helps to think that "bad people" will get their comeuppance in the afterlife as well, and without trivializing the beliefs of millions of people, these are also great ways of coping with the fact that bad things can happen to good people. Life isn't fair, but that doesn't mean we have to be scared. Even I, while finding it hard to be as certain about the afterlife as some, still enjoy the idea that there is something after death.

The idea that when we die, we simply devolve back into dirt, and that's it, is somewhat bleak and depressing. It's enough to make you want to play chess with the devil to escape your fate. However, even so, when put into perspective death is still nothing to fear. Think of all the people who have come before us, Caesar, Atilla the Hun, Martin Luther King, and of course the Macho Man Randy Savage. Every single person who has ever lived, has also died. Now when you say it like that, it begins to feel like a big club. "Hey do you want to join the biggest club in the history of the world? Well eventually you will!" and see it's not that big of a deal, because literally everyone dies.

But what about those of you who are hoping for your shot at immortality? Well you are worse off than the rest of us, because immortality is a fate worse than any other. Think about it, what gives our lives meaning? The notion that we will eventually die gives us that desire and drive to accomplish things and enjoy our existence. We are all on borrowed time, and because of that, we strive to make the best of it. Without death, life would become meaningless. Ever read the Epic of Gilgamesh? No? What about the Bible? One of God's biggest punishments of all time is that he forces Cain to walk the face of the earth forever after he slayed his brother Abel.

See even the bible agrees that the worst punishment in the world, would be the acquisition of immortality. So for those of you who were becoming depressed that death somehow makes everything pointless, it is quite the opposite. The only pointless life is one that goes on forever. Where is the challenge in not being able to die? Plus, think about those first few centuries after being granted immortality. All of your friends are dead, all of your family is dead, and everything is foreign to the time from which you came. While it may be exciting to think of living in a different time period, we exist in this time, and living outside of our own time would amount to a fairly hollow, and lonely existence.

Just to reiterate, I am not trying to offend anyone, only to ask that we take a critical look at why it is we are afraid of death? We should all begin living a little more, rather than worrying about death. Perhaps some day our species will be able to get past our irrational fear of our own demise, and begin a more stress free existence. Till then I'll keep writing these blogs. As always be safe, and try to be happy!

P.S. I almost forgot, I know a lot of you tend to tune out when I ramble on about video games, so I will try to mix it up a bit more often. However for those of you who do like my video game ramblings, keep an eye out in the near future for something cool.