Death.

[LarryUK]

With Lou Reed dying, it's got me thinking again. We mean nothing on this planet. We're here and then we're gone.

Some of us get remembered (Lou) and most don't. What's your view on death? Afraid? Accepting?

I was an undertaker for 8 years and I'm not religious, but I do believe something leaves the body. Soul? Perhaps. Death doesn't scare me. It's the living you have to worry about.

I do believe in reincarnation though. What do you think?

[LarryUK]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=reincarnation&oq=reincar&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0l10.1612.3206.0.5142.7.6.0.1.1.0.101.494.5j1.6.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.VU0VZuOyLxI

Look at some of the stories on YouTube.

[Searcy]

I believe when you're dead, you're gone forever. I don't believe in an after life or reincarnation or karma or any of the other things we tell us to lessen our fear of nothingness. I'm not afraid of death as it is the way of all things but I love life and I don't want to go.

[zigzag]

Maybe. Maybe not.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M

[Jammin' Joe]

When I got hit by a car in '91, I know my soul left my body. I was in a dark place, there was no light to go to. I felt as though if I went forward, I may get lost. So I just thought "back". The next thing I remember is lying in the street with bones sticking out and in the worst pain I ever felt in my life. Call me crazy, but that's my experience.

BTW today is the 42nd anniversary of Duane Allman's passing.

[Kennis]

we are all just insignificant little fragments of this uncomprehensively enormous universe. the fact that a universe exists in the first place, and whatever life is, what gives it this intense drive to sustain and improve itself is in my belief the purpose of our consciousness to try to figure out. But individually, when our little part of it is over, it's over. all out of body/near death experiences are your minds reaction to losing sensory input.

All we really can do is make what we can of the moment we have right now.

[ksdaddy]

My first wife died in january 2011. I went through a 3 month period selling off stuff. I didn't want my kids to be burdened with dealing with my crap after I was gone. That faded somewhat, but over the past couple years I've thinned off a lot of my possessions. I've had a paradigm shift in that... yes I will have toys, but I'm thinking less of long term collection stuff and more in the short term. This summer I bought a '57 Chevy and I'm shopping for a Corvette. A couple years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of doing that; I would be thinking hedging against inflation and putting my money into old guitars that I don't dare play. Screw that. I could drop dead before lunch so I better go squeal the tires on an old Vette while I'm on my coffee break.

 

As to what happens to us afterwards.... who knows. My own belief is that we live on somehow, but I figure I'll find out someday, and I'm not going to lose any sleep in the meantime.

[Notes_Norton]

The meaning of life? Hmmm, I don't think there is one.

 

We just are, and when we're gone? Who knows? Nobody for sure. It could be the eternal nothingness, reincarnation, heaven/hell, Valhalla, happy hunting grounds, or whatever any other philosopher imagined. All I know is that it can't be answered by the living, so I don't spend any time worrying about it. I suppose that's the true meaning of agnosticism. I just don't know and don't think I can know while alive (and perhaps not when dead).

 

I live my life having as much fun as I can while doing the least amount of harm to others. That way if there is a happy hunting ground, I'll go to the good place, and if not, I've had as much fun as I can. Life is the journey, not the destination.

 

I don't think Lou will be remembered for as long as Mozart, Beethoven or even Elvis, but he did make a temporary mark in the world while we were alive, and I hope he had a nice ride on his journey.

 

Notes

[btoth76]

Hello!

 

I guess, I am afraid of dying. By instinct. Our body is part of the time-space tissue. It wants to be alive.

 

On the other hand: my spirit isn't. Doesn't even wants to stay.

 

No use to fear the reaper, because:

 

1.) Once You're gone, it's over. Noone ever complained about being dead. No existence - no pain (for atheists).

2.) But I am with Jammim' Joe. I've had out-of-body experiences. I know it's more to life than our brief staying here, on the mudball called Earth.

 

Either way, don't fear!

 

Cheers... Bence

[quapman]

 

 

I guess, I am afraid of dying. By instinct. Our body is part of the time-space tissue. It wants to be alive.

 

 

 

 

Yes, this nobody can dispute no matter how bada$$ they think they are.

It's all about survival of the species and is why life exists.

 

As far as death goes it's a part of life.

 

You're born,, blah blah blah,, you die.

[IanHenry]

Truth is, we are all here for just the blink of an eye in the history of the world and even more so, the Universe. In the scheme of things, we are just insignificant microbes. I always find visiting family graves very sobering, and wonder how we spend our time, some people are obsessed with making money, but will it buy them any more time, I doubt it. It always makes me feel quite melancholy.

 

Ian.

[Riffster]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmGrkZqqQ7c

[Riffster]

In all seriousness I do believe we have a soul, where does it go when we die? that, I do not know.

[rct]

"I don't mind dahn, but wha ya gotta stay daid so long?"

- An old guy I used to work with in Virginia, long time ago.

 

rct

[Rabs]

Yup.. death is the only certainty in life... Your born and one day your gonna die.. its just a case of where when and how...

 

Its not death im afraid of but how im gonna die.. No one wants to suffer.... I just want it to be quick when it happens.

 

And like many others on here, I look at the big picture of what we are compared to time and space and we are tiny nothings.. BUT I would like to believe in an afterlife, im not sure but ive seen too many weird things happen in my life which makes me think, maybe, just maybe..

 

But its also why I think we should just enjoy as much as we can while we can cos you never know when it will stop.

[IanHenry]

Out of the blue

and into the black

You pay for this,

but they give you that

And once you're gone,

you can't come back

When you're out of the blue

and into the black.

 

Neil Young Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)

[milod]

Well, by age criteria, I'm likely closer to the reaper than many, if not most here.

 

I think it's true that as one ages, if of sound mind and not "in denial," one's priorities do change. That's natural and something we've seen reported in the literature available for thousands of years. In fact, the oldest "story," that of Gilgamesh, raises such questions of life, death and meaning.

 

Whether one believes in a "soul" or "afterlife" - and neither is necessary to belief in the other - I am firmly convinced however that one's "Karma" is a reality.

 

Karma? What place did you create on earth through your time, and what long-term effect will that place have made to the world. That definitely outlives us. Bach's "karma" still affects us all, as does Shakespeare's and - writers and re-writers through many centuries of that old story of Gilgamesh.

 

All kidding aside, I'm in no more "fear" of death than I was at 15 when my mother was killed in a car wreck or when I buried my second "mom" of some 50 years. IMHO the proper "fear" is threefold: Having led a life of little karma, pain, and loss of physical and mental abilities together to simply "exist" as one would not care to be remembered - a loss of the good karma to that of burdening others.

 

Shakespeare's "King Lear" addresses that latter. Ditto Sophocles' "Oedipus at Colonus." In both of those it's sometimes recommended that one not get into their study until age 40 or so on grounds they're not of sufficient meaning to the reader or audience until that degree of personal experience.

 

<grin> or consider Eliot...

 

"HERE I am, an old man in a dry month,

Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.

I was neither at the hot gates

Nor fought in the warm rain

Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass,

Bitten by flies, fought."

 

***** Yet Thomas wrote of the perspective of youth toward age... and a different outlook of that youth. You, reader, determine the greater vision of reality:

 

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

"Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

 

"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

"Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

 

"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

"And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

 

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

 

m

[Blueblooded]

When I got hit by a car in '91, I know my soul left my body. I was in a dark place, there was no light to go to. I felt as though if I went forward, I may get lost. So I just thought "back". The next thing I remember is lying in the street with bones sticking out and in the worst pain I ever felt in my life. Call me crazy, but that's my experience.

 

Funny... I used to have that same experience every time I drank Tequila !

[charlie brown]

As has been already stated, It's inevitable...I only hope/pray, it won't be protracted,

painful, and/or agonizing. My Grandmother slipped away, the best way...IMHO, she just

went to sleep, and never woke up!

 

CB

[RowdyMoon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xmRWj7gJEU

 

 

I'm not afraid of it, but I find it truly sad and depressing. Your there...then you arn't....My Mother was born in the 30's, I remember her always talking about how wizard of oz was such a big thing back then because of the black and white to color thing.She passed away a few years ago and when my family sat down to watch the newer " OZ " movie I remember thinking how sad it was she didn't get to see this.....it's little things like that that I think about and find depressing .

[DanvillRob]

My dad used to tell me that being dead would feel to me exactly like what I felt before I was born.... that may be true......

 

But I believe there's a God and I believe in Heaven.

 

And if I'm wrong....no harm, no foul....

 

If an atheist is wrong....oh man...are THEY in trouble!

[milod]

For those who have any sort of belief in a hereafter in which one's being is somehow retained in recognizable form, consider this.

 

As in grammar, we speak not of a period that marks an ending, nor a question mark that leaves being forever seeking answers, nor an exclamation mark shouted somehow aloud. Instead, it is in metaphor a comma, signifying but a pause before continuing on in another phrase.

 

m

[Golden]

When the game is over the King and Pawn go into the same box. You notice there's no luggage racks on the hearse?

[DanvillRob]

If life is like a candle bright

Then death must be the wind

You can close your window tight

And it still comes blowing in

 

So I will climb the highest hill

And I'll watch the rising sun

And pray that I won't feel the chill

'Til I'm too old to die young

 

Let me watch my children grow

To see what they become

Lord, don't let that cold wind blow

'Til I'm too old to die young

 

I have had some real good friends

I thought would never die

But all I've got that's left of them

Are these teardrops in my eye

 

Let me watch my children grow

To see what they become

Lord, don't let that cold wind blow

'Til I'm too old to die young

 

 

[milod]

Here's another...

 

I think this guy Donne well. <chortle>

 

 

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,

For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,

Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,

And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;

One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

 

m