Oblivion......

I often wonder whether or not it hurts to die. No! I don't mean a "taking my own life" and shit or dying in some blaze of glory. I am talking about an individual, faced with his or her own mortality, at their "end". The conclusion that their life has come to an end. That single moment where they realize, "This is IT....."

I realize that "the end" is inevitable for all of us. Timely, untimely.... Regardless of the fact. Our days our numbered. We just don't know EXACTLY when that day is going to be. There is no doubt, there is an "expiration date" on all of us. It's a grim conclusion, but there it is. An inevitable truth that no one can escape.

I mean, those who "go"may go peacefully or not, but what of the chaos left behind for their loved ones and friends. How are they able to make "sense" of the loss that they have to experience when the "dearly departed" are gone? The dearly departed may have gotten oblivion, but those left surviving have to grieve and deal with the aftermath. I get that there is a certain sense of woe when experiencing a loss and it hurts and it sucks and there is a certain camaraderie among the friends and family of those lost, who come together and remember the person in life.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have seen people gather at these "memorials" or whatever and bemoan THEIR miseries and how the loss affects THEIR lives. Do they ever stop to consider the "dearly departed"? It's not that I would ever diminish the feeling of someone who had experienced loss.  And maybe it's really IS just me. I often find myself wondering , "Did it hurt?" "Did you suffer?" "Were you scared?" "When you 'went', was it..... bad?" It kind of freaks me out. It also freaks me out when they have these open casket things and people line up to look at the empty and hollow husk of what used to be the person they once knew. Isn't it sort of like pouring lemon juice onto an open wound?

I often wonder because I have lost so many who were close to me. I would like to think that in their ends, they felt no pain, no grief, no fear..... That they were at peace. Not that hippy dippy bullshit type of peace, but true ACTUAL peace where all the conflicts in their lives are resolved and everything has been "laid to rest" so to speak. And whatever that was "left behind" just ceases to matter and what they are left with is an oblivion that only death can bring. It's no secret that I am probably not the most religious person on the planet. Spiritual? Maybe. I have my own theories, but that's about it. Life after death? Heaven or hell? Reincarnation? Eh. What can I say. I'm a tad skeptical. Sure. I would like to believe that there is some magical place full of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and all things happy and wonderful and candy coated for those I love who are gone. I'd also like to think that there is the anti-verse to that place for those whom I think deserve to be there, but only after a long, drawn out and painful death. But the skeptic in me says, when we go, we go. Poof. That's it, bye bye. Sorry to disappoint. But there it is.

Death is a fickle thing. We don't exactly know when it's going to come, but it certainly is inevitable. We're ALL going to die eventually. PERIOD. It's HAPPENING. It's happening right now. all of our "clocks" are ticking down right now to the end. So, what now? We can either all wait and hope for the best as we are forced to meet our ends or we can actually go about the days we have left and DO. Instead of waiting for life to begin, just go out and live it. The biggest regrets are the things we didn't do in life. <ENTER MORE CLICHES ABOUT GOING OUT AND LIVING LIFE HERE> <I SWEAR ON ALL THINGS HOLY, IF ONE OF YOU SAYS "YOLO", SOMEWHERE A BABY PANDA WILL DIE A HORRENDOUS DEATH>