Humans have
always feared the idea of death. Although you can always come across people who
will tell you that they have no problem with dying they are most likely lying
because deep inside all of us there will always be the feeling that there
cannot be anything good about death.
At some
point of your life you are going to ask youself what the meaning of life is and
then you will realise that we are all doomed to die one day and that everything
we do in life will be insignificant. You will probably fall into a deep
depression and that usually happens whilst being a teenager. So I have been
through that phase and I think that it is very important to deal with it.
Eventually you are going to move on and reluctantly face the fact that nothing
is forever, but at that one moment it is going to drive you crazy because you
won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
So here is
the ultimate guide if you want to at least try and accept death as a natural
consequence of life. But be careful of course because this guide is not
supposed to make your fear go away completely. It is here to ease your mind,
but you will still try to avoid the topic death. I suppose this is just part of what makes us human.
Woody Allen
provides us with the most suitable quote regarding dealing with the fear of death. „I am not scared of
death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.“ So we will still have a
hard time adjusting our thoughts to „the end of everything“.
The guide I
was talking about is to simply listen to Montaigne and Steve Jobs. You might be
thinking what kind of relation there is between a French philosopher who lived
in the 16th century and the creator of a multinational technology company who
only recently died in 2011. Well they both addressed the issue of death and
told us to simply deal with it.
They both
showed us why it is so necessary to accept death. Montaigne does this in his
essay „To sudy philosophie is to learn to die“. He talks about how he also like
everyone else in this world had feared death all along until he had his first
near death experience and he knew that he needed to change his attitude because
he realised that death is just the beginning of another life. Montaigne points
out that if we were not sorry that we were not alive hundred years ago, then it
is just a waste of time to be emotional about the fact that we are not going to
be alive hundred years hencefoward. What is also important is that we
acknowledge the truth that we came into this world without any fear or passion
so why can we not leave it in the same way.
Another
thing that should help people get over their fear of death is the realisation
of a certain balance. We were born because other poeple before us made space
for us and we will obviously have to make space for soemone else as well. The
earth does not need you to be here for too long because you are not special. In
fact it is boring to have all the same people on the planet. Change is
something we all appreciate in our lives while we’re alive, but it is time to
realise that death needs to be appreciated to because let us be honest it is
just another kind of change. Also Montaigne tells you to be aware of the fact
that we are all going to die, which means you are not alone. All the people you
know will die and therefore you are not leaving anyone behind.
Now it is
time to talk about Steve Jobs a friend of Montaigne, had they both lived at the
same time. So obviously Steve Jobs comes from a completely different period of
time. He was the genius that created the brand „Apple“. He is the one who
blessed us with the beautiful design of a Macbook. So we all need to love him,
but not only because of that of course. We should all love him because he was
utterly smart and motivated us in all sorts of ways. One of his best speeches
namely the one he gave in 2005 at the graduation ceremony at Stanford
University will forever be one of my most favourite speeches. There he tells three
different stories of his life and the last one is about death.
It is
usually not something a lot of people choose to talk about especially not at a
graduation ceremony, but I believe it was good to remind those freshly gradated
students who still have all their lives to live that death is real and they
should always be aware of that.
Steve Jobs
talks about how he was diagnosed with cancer and how he was told that he would
only have a few months left to live. He tells them it is essential to remember
that they might be dead soon so they can make the right decisions and follow
their hearts instead of being unhappy because they have enough time to be dead
when they actually are dead so no need to be dead whilst you are actually
alive. Steve Jobs points out that we have nothing to loose and that emotions
like fear or embarrassment should not worry us in any way because in the end
they won’t matter.
As a last
argument he states like Montaigne that death is the single best invention in
life. He also admits that he knows that no one wants to die, but the truth is
we all share death as our destiny. And it is also necessary because it cleans
away the old and makes space for the new. Although it is graduation day
and the graduates are about to start a new chapter in their lives Steve Jobs makes sure
they understand that right now they might be the new, but soon they will be the
old and be removed through death. So here we have it again. No one really wants
you to be here for too long because then you will lose the meaning of being
alive and actually making the most of your life and be happy.
So I am
sure we can read Montaigne’s essay and listen to Steve Job’s speech over and
over again, but at the end of the day we will never be completely at ease with
the concept of death, but we will be more relieved and we will realise that both
of them are right with what they are saying.
Let both of
them inspire you and drive you to live a fulfilling life so you won’t have to
fear "the end of everything anymore".
“We are all bound one voyage; the lot of all, sooner or later, is to come out of the urn”(Hor,. Od,. ii. 3, 25.)
ReplyDeleteI agree that we fear death unconsciously; however, whether we like it or not, it is our fate to confront the ‘urn’. Our ‘provisions’ of death might be powerless when we are ‘dealing with’ it; however, some philosophy might be helpful for our endeavor of ‘living’ – efforts which are made by provisions.
“Everyday travels towards deaths[;] the last only arrives at it.” - Montaigne
I want to emphasis the word ‘travel’ here. Actually, I think the act of ‘provision’ itself is not only pursuing some meaning of life but also to do something like Montaigne or Steve Jobs. During our journey, we might feel lament towards the ‘deaths’ of others; we might be eager to do something; we might sometimes lose our positive attitude and end up becoming depressed; we might someday recede to decrepitude or illness... eventually ‘arriving’ to our destiny.
However, I think such a path is not hopeless. Awareness of death enables us to live our lives as if this is the last moment. Of course, it is hard to retain that ‘energetic’ life every day. But it doesn’t matter, because I think that is, in truth, a journey in all ways. What matters is how we provision our ‘death’ and whether or not we recognize each of our steps. What matters is how we fill our ‘pages’ of life rather than simply waiting for the passing of the pages.
Steve Jobs’ speech was really interesting and helpful.
Thank you for your post, Eda.