Life is underrated. It's sad to think that it takes death to capture someone close to us for us to realize that we too can come to an end. As young adults, we believe we're invincible. We forget that we are simply flesh,blood, and bones. We tend to be so wrapped up in our lives that we forget to truly live and experience it. We plan out our daily schedules, create 5- year plans and stick by our routines; death is never included in our grand scheme. It's something that takes you and everyone else by surprise, it leaves you questioning your own life. Where will we end up? When will it be my time to go? What about my family? My friends? Truth is, the answer to these questions none of us can answer. This is where the fear of death begins. It continues when we step back to examine our lives.
A fellow classmate from my philosophy class gave me a different perspective on why people fear death. She thought about the pain and sorrow her parents and family would feel about her loss, and just thinking about how hurt they would be scared her. As humans we are social creatures and we form bonds and attachments to the people we love and care for. When we die these bonds we have with others are severed. Some people do not bounce back from these broken ties, other people do not know how to live without these bonds but the harsh truth is that life goes on. Yes, we might not know where we end up, but at least we can say we know where we came from. We get so caught up in grief that we forget to be happy about the time that we did spend with these people. Yes, death takes away so much but yet life gives us so much more. There are millions of people to meet, new connections to form. There is still so much that we have all yet to experience and we should take the opportunity of another day to actual live.
Socrates did not fear death because he did not believe in the idea of an afterlife. He believed that death could only bring about a dreamless sleep in which you would not notice what you're missing. I do believe in an afterlife but, even with that I still do not fear death nor allow it to prevent me from living. I do not believe that God, the universe or whatever force you might believe in created us to live in fear and restriction. We were given the gift of life to enjoy it, change it, experience it with others and if death does come, let it be a celebration of the life you lived, not the conclusion to the life you lost.
