Every One of Us Will Die So Get Over It
Russell R. Burton, an old person
When I reached the wonderful age of eighty I decided that I
had entered the time when I can be called old.
I use the word ‘wonderful’ because half of my 1932 birth-mates never
made it. In a way, I am lucky to have
reached this distinguished plateau of life for as I look back on my life there
were many times that I could or perhaps should have died. For instance, when I was a young lad I was in
a coma for several days running a fever of 104-105, the physician thinking I
had polio. Yes, I survived and with only some slight hearing loss! Well, I think my hearing loss is no big thing.
Of course we all do strange things as we act out our lives
but some are just plain stupid. You
know, when you were younger you awoke the next morning in a cold sweat thinking
of the drunken night that you had just survived.
So, having reached this distinguished age I began to think
ahead a bit about when I will reach the finish line. I use the words ‘finish line’ instead of
‘die’ for it sounds more appealing. You know, my life is only one of many races
that I will be running in my life time and this is just one of several finish
lines I will cross. Now, that is true
but it is the last race that I will run.
Interestingly, it is the only one where there is no competition.
And, I will not know how I finished the race. Oh, everyone at my memorial service (if I
have one) will give me many kudos and high fives. Well, those high fives will
be difficult to do with a pile of ashes.
Memorials are interesting get togethers.
I will write more on these in another essay.
The words that surround the event of death are many and all
focused on disguising what has really happened.
For instance, ‘passed away’, ‘passed on’ or just the word ‘passed’ are
often used. When I hear these words I always
wonder where that person went and is it too much to ask the survivors to use
two words not just ‘passed’?
Webster’s New World
Dictionary and Webster’s New World
Thesaurus have nearly endless really
cool words for the simple word ‘passed’.
Of course, passed can mean many things other than referring to
death. But even those with death
connotations can be amusing. Some of
these from the dictionary are: ‘to cease’, ‘to depart’, ‘passed on’ or how
about ‘pass out’? I don’t think so for I
have been there many times. Also, the
thesaurus has some interesting ones that mean death: ‘transpire’, ‘slip by’,
‘slip away’, ‘pass by’, or these that I really like, ‘fly by’, ‘fly’, ‘drag’,
or ‘run out’. How about the person that
died ‘ran out the clock’ like a game of basketball? How fascinating that death
is such a difficult word to accept.
A common phrase used other than those of or with ‘pass’ is:
‘entered into rest’. Once again this
wording attempts to deny the act of dying.
This person didn’t die he/she just went to sleep. In a way, it’s like the veterinarian telling
the pet owner that I am not going to kill your pet I am just going to ‘put it
to sleep’. Certainly a deep sleep for it
will never wake up, that is if the veterinarian does his/her job correctly. Now, ‘putting an animal down’ is frequently
used by veterinarians especially for pet horses.
So why would a pet dog or cat be ‘put to sleep’ and a horse
not ‘put to sleep’ but ‘put down’? The
answer is that a horse sleeps standing up but when it dies it goes down. How clever and descriptive these words are
but they just deny the words dying or death.
I worked as a one-day-a-week volunteer docent at our local
zoo. Before we began our day of duty we
were always told about what had transpired at the zoo the preceding week. Of course this included the animals that had
died. Our docent leader never said they
died, they ‘pass away’. I’ll ask again
where are they going? I thought only
humans went to Heaven. Well okay maybe
some pets, but a turtle or a giant snake?
Another substitute for the word die is ‘lost’. I lost my father meaning that he died but
what a strange way of saying it. I
always wonder why don’t you go search and find him or has 911 been
notified? Old people do get lost and
they are still alive.
Strangely, the word ‘die’ is used frequently as hyperbole in
describing something that a person really enjoyed. For instance, I recently saw on TV a person
interviewed regarding the food at a particular restaurant. The food was good enough to die for! Wow…
Now, there are many religious connotations that cover this
dying thing such as ‘went to be with the Lord’ or ‘new life with the Lord’. Interesting
but not surprising, reference to the Lord is common in obituaries in Texas , part of the so called ‘bible belt’, but rarely
used in the Buffalo News published in upstate New York . Of course, people die in both places at about
the same rate from the same causes and I assume they reach the same final destination,
of course depending on what a person believes.
I just looked at the Obituary page in my local San Antonio newspaper. Not many deaths published on a Saturday. Obviously
most dead people want to be recognized in the Sunday news where there are
several pages of them. I guess that
gives them a little extra boost getting into Heaven. Maybe improved name recognition for the Lord
is more likely to read the Sunday paper where He is more often mentioned. Perhaps He would be more aware of people
entering into Heaven on Sundays and not keep them waiting at those Pearly Gates.
This takes me back to the title of this article. Yes, we are all going to die so get over
it! Okay, the thought of dying is
sometimes not a pleasant one, since it lasts for such a long time. But when a
person is ‘terminal’ with an incurable illness and/or in pain, death is
welcomed. On the other hand, ‘healthy’
(I put healthy in quotes because it is relative) old people never want to die
which we all agree is a ridiculous thought.
Still, I sometimes think there could be exceptions to the necessity of
dying and could I be one of them? Okay,
I have never seen or heard of someone living for ever but you just never know.
