Don’t Fear The Reaper

Man I love that song and Blue Oyster Cult. Anyways this post is inspired by the sad fact that the great South African leader Nelson Mandela is sick and quite possibly on his deathbed at the age of 94. It’s funny how we take for granted that the people we love are going to be around forever-that our parents and grandparents, siblings, kids, pets-even though we know that’s not the case. Most people are afraid to discuss death and dying, and I can’t blame them although funny enough people said they would rather be in the casket at a funeral than giving the in memorial speech. Perhaps because I have lost too many people over the last decade I am a tad numb when it comes to the subject, as if I’ve already thought about how life is too short.

What annoys me is when parents try to hide the subject from their kids, as if their children are not going to have questions when their beloved Fluffy shifts off its mortal coil or a beloved grandparent or relative passes away. I wish my parents had been a little more honest about it, although they told me about Heaven and the afterlife which of course if it includes a heaven includes a hell, too. Honestly I’m rather curious about what lies in the great beyond, and if there is even a great beyond to begin with. Maybe when they stick your corpse in that wooden box; burn it in the incinerator; shoot it into space; do whatever….that’s the end. I guess since I think there is a place you go after you die I’m the optimistic type, and that’s fine. I would like it if we talked about death more than black metal bands do, however that’s just the fear preventing us from facing our own mortality. “Baby take my hand…”