I already wrote about grief and the potential rhetoric behind it. I thought I'd talk about the cause of grief: death.
Now death is something we all probably think about relatively often. It's something that we must all inevitably face and a lot of people are very uncomfortable talking about it. The culmination of life and the ultimate unknown. I think people are scared more than anything of that fact. Because, no matter what faith you may hold, no one really knows what is going to happen when they die.
I am a Episcopal, but I don't really like to associate myself with religion. I do believe in God and I think I believe in some sort of afterlife. When I ask myself why I think there is an afterlife, I always come to the same conclusion: I can't imagine there being anything else. By that I mean, I can't even fathom there being nothing. I understand that there was tons of nothing before I ever lived, but that doesn't help me to understand the absolute nothingness that may await all of us after our time on Earth is done.
What does this exactly say about me and my beliefs? Well, for one, it's kind of selfish and self-centered. The Earth doesn't revolve around me, which I so humbly know and understand, so why would an afterlife exist simply because I can't understand there being anything else? It doesn't make sense. But it's what I believe regardless.
The other reason I believe in an afterlife is also selfish. I want there to be some kind of reward for all the people that have lived good lives, namely my loved ones. And, as horrible as this sounds when I write it and really think about it, I think those that led bad lives should be punished in some way. What this all boils down to is that I am afraid that the accomplishments and choices we make in this life will count for nothing. This partially stems from my reading of Nietzsche in my Philosophy class, as he says this is the exact reason for the initial formation of religion.
With all that said, and how ridiculous it may be when I think about it, I still believe in an omnipresent, God-like figure that in some sense created the universe. And I believe that our lives do count for something, that something will happen when we die, and that darkness alone does not wait for us. Is it selfish and childish? Probably. I just can't imagine there being anything else though.
I agree that death is a really abstract thing to think about, especially with how common and real it is. Everyone understands that there will come a time when a body can't function anymore, and death will come. However, whatever comes after that is the great mystery like you say. This is rather depressing, but I can imagine a nothingness after. I would like to hope for there to be something better, but when it comes down to the facts, all we know is life on Earth, and we have to make that count for something! Maybe thinking about death can be a way to take things for what they are and not make anything too serious or stressful. In the end, the short-term rewards for things we stress over might not matter as much as the fun we have experiencing life for what it has to offer.
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