(no subject)
"But it is madness to think you can succeed that way. They come and they go and they trot and they dance: and never a word about death. All well and good. Yet when death does come, catching them unawares and unprepared, then what storms of passion overwhelm them."
-Michel De Montaigne
Death is not an easy subject for anyone to deal with. Some have experienced a lot, others have experienced none. Death as Montaigne refers to it also reminds me of any kind of loss. Not particularly just a loss of a human, but a loss of a person from your life, loss of a job, life of a stable thing in your life.
Death is coming soon for me. Soon I will be graduating from high school and I will be moving on and rarely seeing anyone from high school ever again, except perhaps those who I have spent a lot of time with. To me, this loss of community feels the same as losing a person. All the connections I have made over the years, all the fun times, all of the little things I hated to do in high school will be gone forever. This loss is not easy to take. By this loss, I will also be experiencing a lot of great things, but there is no going back and resurrecting this life.
All seniors will experience this loss. Some will deal with it by pretending not to care and in turn, convincing themselves they don’t care. Some will deal with it by being so caught up in losing the high school community that they will not enjoy their senior year. Some deal with it by coming back to school and visiting teachers or programs that have influenced them, perhaps hoping that they can always come back and feel the same. I am dealing with it by not thinking about it until the time comes to say goodbye to everything I have known on May 21, 2004.
Perhaps I will experience what Montaigne refers to in the above quote. Right now, I am trotting through the last three months of my high school life, having fun and doing good. Not realizing that death will come, when it actually hits me I may have an unpleasant reaction. The emotions, the fears, the loss will all overcome me.
In another essay, however, Montaigne recommends that we live more in the moment than being wrapped up in the future. If we are always concerned about the end, then what is the present for? Being obsessed with death (a loss) is just as bad as what Montaigne mentions in the above quote. I choose to not think about this death until the time comes because I believe it is the only way that I will be able to deal with that loss. I will deal with my reaction when the time comes.
As long as death and loss have been around, people have had a hard time dealing with it. Some in the “dark ages” were so obsessed with death that it consumed their lives. I do not want to live as one of those people. I wish to enjoy my time here on earth and deal with death and loss as it comes, as the people in Montaigne’s quote do.
-Michel De Montaigne
Death is not an easy subject for anyone to deal with. Some have experienced a lot, others have experienced none. Death as Montaigne refers to it also reminds me of any kind of loss. Not particularly just a loss of a human, but a loss of a person from your life, loss of a job, life of a stable thing in your life.
Death is coming soon for me. Soon I will be graduating from high school and I will be moving on and rarely seeing anyone from high school ever again, except perhaps those who I have spent a lot of time with. To me, this loss of community feels the same as losing a person. All the connections I have made over the years, all the fun times, all of the little things I hated to do in high school will be gone forever. This loss is not easy to take. By this loss, I will also be experiencing a lot of great things, but there is no going back and resurrecting this life.
All seniors will experience this loss. Some will deal with it by pretending not to care and in turn, convincing themselves they don’t care. Some will deal with it by being so caught up in losing the high school community that they will not enjoy their senior year. Some deal with it by coming back to school and visiting teachers or programs that have influenced them, perhaps hoping that they can always come back and feel the same. I am dealing with it by not thinking about it until the time comes to say goodbye to everything I have known on May 21, 2004.
Perhaps I will experience what Montaigne refers to in the above quote. Right now, I am trotting through the last three months of my high school life, having fun and doing good. Not realizing that death will come, when it actually hits me I may have an unpleasant reaction. The emotions, the fears, the loss will all overcome me.
In another essay, however, Montaigne recommends that we live more in the moment than being wrapped up in the future. If we are always concerned about the end, then what is the present for? Being obsessed with death (a loss) is just as bad as what Montaigne mentions in the above quote. I choose to not think about this death until the time comes because I believe it is the only way that I will be able to deal with that loss. I will deal with my reaction when the time comes.
As long as death and loss have been around, people have had a hard time dealing with it. Some in the “dark ages” were so obsessed with death that it consumed their lives. I do not want to live as one of those people. I wish to enjoy my time here on earth and deal with death and loss as it comes, as the people in Montaigne’s quote do.