Death

 Death is death. It may come wrapped in an aging body or in violence or disease or in suffering or in tragedy or in quiet acceptance. But death is death. We can worry about death to the point of killing life. We can ignore death to the point of treading at death’s door. 

We often put more time and resources into ceremonializing death than we do into ceremonializing life. We know we will die, but we don’t live our lives with the intensity of that realization. When we come to recognize that it’s time for us to die, our loved ones resist letting us go.

The eulogies are of no use to us when we’re in the casket or the urn. They are often more reverent than honest. It’s the honest conversations we have with the people we love and respect that allow us to rest peacefully in the casket or believe in the resurrection of our dust.