I don't fear death, either. :) I look forward to meeting Jesus face to face, as well as other characters. I'll admit being more than a little curious to meet Elijah. The Bible tells how he never died, but rather "ascended."
What I do lament is leaving the earth before warp drive is possible. I've always been an outer-space kind of girl, and feel sad that one day humans will probably travel casually around the Milky Way and I'll have been long gone.
I have to say I didn't fear death until I had kids. Now I recall all the movies I've seen where the mother dies young and the kids have no mother growing up and I get afraid.
A friend of an acquaintance of mine died from breast cancer and left a young daughter behind. She recruited my acquaintance (I say acquaintance because I'm not very close to her) to always do school clothes shopping for her daughter, because it was so important to her to have someone with a sense of fashion make sure the daughter was clothed in trendy stuff. Wow. And they published an article in the newspaper about how wonderful she is to take this young girl shopping each fall. Can't say as that would be the top thing on my list for which I'd line up a replacement.
For myself, I've learned (after years of dealing with my own suicidal tendencies) not to fear Death. I suppose it helps that I've spent a lot of time reading both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and I find their visions of Death as a character who is at least neutrally inclined toward humans, if not actively interested in us. My belief structures tend toward treating Death as a necessary part of life - all things must end, after all
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Am I the only one here who does fear death?vulgarweedFebruary 7 2005, 07:21:30 UTC
I do, yes. I have yet to meet the religion (and I've tried several) that can give me absolute confidence in an afterlife. That's not why I embrace the faith I do have; it's' important to me as a way to lend more beauty and meaning to the life I'm living. But I do fear complete annihilation, going out like a candle never lit again. (Though I suppose I do believe that there has always been a person who is "me," that is, who thinks of herself as "I" and always will be until our species goes extinct--just never the same one again, if that makes ANY sense at all!) Mostly I fear it because I enjoy being alive so terribly much, every aspect of it--even the crappy ones--is so vastly preferable to not existing at all. I guess I'm dangerously Elven in that regard: I cannot imagine myself willingly leaving behind trees, fog, coffee, kisses, the first Velvet Underground album, my father's jokes, the cheekbones and eyes I got from my mother, writing, reading, my city's energy, the feeling of taking off in an airplane...ad infinitum
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I don't think I fear death...evieballerinaFebruary 8 2005, 02:28:42 UTC
I fear the manner in which I might die... would hate to drown or have some other traumatic death, but I do not fear what is on the other side---if anything.
I'm with the earlier post that I fear leaving my chldren behind. I fear their inevitable pain at losing their mother. So, I guess I fear the realities of death, the grief, the loss, the trauma, but I do not fear what it holds for the person who has passed on.
And I'm not sure I see a connection for myself between God and death. Honestly, it was being pregnant and creating life that cemented my belief in a higher power.
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What I do lament is leaving the earth before warp drive is possible. I've always been an outer-space kind of girl, and feel sad that one day humans will probably travel casually around the Milky Way and I'll have been long gone.
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Meh.. it's early...
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A friend of an acquaintance of mine died from breast cancer and left a young daughter behind. She recruited my acquaintance (I say acquaintance because I'm not very close to her) to always do school clothes shopping for her daughter, because it was so important to her to have someone with a sense of fashion make sure the daughter was clothed in trendy stuff. Wow. And they published an article in the newspaper about how wonderful she is to take this young girl shopping each fall. Can't say as that would be the top thing on my list for which I'd line up a replacement.
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I'm with the earlier post that I fear leaving my chldren behind. I fear their inevitable pain at losing their mother. So, I guess I fear the realities of death, the grief, the loss, the trauma, but I do not fear what it holds for the person who has passed on.
And I'm not sure I see a connection for myself between God and death. Honestly, it was being pregnant and creating life that cemented my belief in a higher power.
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