Air-clinic writing contest 9: The young shall grow old and die

People often ask;

What causes death?
Is it painful to die?
Why do we die?

Most people however, are scared to talk about death or even hear about it. I belonged in the later category. I hated the topic or being asked what I thought of death or dying. For years I dreaded the discussion until recently when a friend of mine passed away. It's not just the passing that thrilled me but the fact that we shared a drink a day before. And in that moment, we talked about plans we had for our lives and how we wanted our future to turn out. We had a deep conversation, took our turns to reflect on our lives.

After that incident, I was deep in thought... A thought I dreaded. I asked myself questions to which I could get no satisfactory answer. Then I resorted to asking people around; family, friends, colleagues, teachers and professors, the Internet,etc.
The first thing I wanted to know was what is death?. My answer came in four words... THE END OF LIFE. Death is a certainty of life. Death must occur. Some of us will die in ways out of our control, and most of us will be unaware of the moment of death itself.

According to Jeff Mason, Birth and death are the bookends of our lives. Living towards death in time gives one's life a direction and framework within which to understand the changes that life brings. The young look forward. The old look back.

There's a truth to this. Ignoring death makes us believe that life is permanent and thus we are encouraged to lose ourselves to the little things of life. On the other hand, constant rumination on death will lead us away from life. Honestly coming to terms about the idea of death will give meaning to life so that in the end, it will be useful to think about death only to the point that it frees us to live fully immersed in the life we have yet to live.

WORD COUNT: 347 WORDS

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