It’s okay. You don’t have to run away; it’s just good ol’ Death…the end of life as we know it. And you know what…it might not be so bad…really. In fact, the good thing about death is the certainty. I mean, if there’s one thing you can be sure of when you are born, it’s that you will die. It’s a fact of life…like crappy traffic on the I-95 on Labor Day in the United States. Why the fuss? Why am I so uncomfortable writing about this that I feel the need to insert unnecessary bad jokes in the first paragraph of this write-up? Why? Because Death scares the life out of me – pun intended.

I suspect I am not alone. Death has been scaring us humans since the dawn of our species. I am not going to go into details about how Bo, my caveman ancestor, handled his fear of death. I have already written a brief summary of his explioits here. Suffice to say, I don’t think he thought about it that much. This attitude of not thinking about the coming of the Grim Reaper has remained with us till now, except the context is completely different. I’ll try to explain this as we go along, so try to keep up with me.

What is death? What, I ask? The answer is…well…to tell the truth, I haven’t the foggiest idea. No one does, as far as I know. All I know is that at some point, I will stop breathing, and my body will start to decay…unless I am eaten by sharks or something. But you get the picture. We are born, we live, then we die, one way or the other. It is the way it is. But why do we die? The answer really depends on who you ask.

Let’s start with Religion; Christianity, in particular (sorry, I was raised a catholic). Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden…Paradise. All was well. Then Eve screwed up (women, eh?), allowing the snake to convince her to eat fruit from the one tree that God had warned them against. She then got Adam – poor sod – to do the same. Now I don’t like to point fingers, but this blatantly shows that women can’t be trusted. I have shared this sentiment with my wife in the past; but she threatened to stop feeding me, so I took it back.

Where were we? Yeah, God was pissed off, as you can imagine. He decided to chuck them out of paradise; and he threw in a death sentence as well, for good measure. He also decided that all their offspring would suffer the same fate. I have always thought this was a bit harsh, but what do I know? In any case, that is why we die. I can’t speak for other religions, but if you’re a christian, you can walk around knowing that your life will end someday because your great, great, great, great, great…[repeat...not really sure how many times]…great grandpa listened to his female companion. Be warned…Ouch! [that's me expressing pain as my wife smacks the back of my head. Don't shoot the messenger dear, okay?]

In Scientific terms, we age until we die from complications that result from, well, ageing (this is the practical case for religion as well, except without the cool romantic tragedy as a backdrop). This is of course assuming trauma or disease don’t get us first. That’s key in the overall question of the cause of death from a scientific point of view. What I am thinking about here is why it is that we age at all, or more to the point, why this ageing leads to death. It’s an interesting point. Evolution (I pick this because it’s largely accepted in Science) seems to be really good at preserving the “best-suited” of our offspring. How come even these chosen ones are thwarted by death?

In simple terms, this seems to happen because immortality – or more practically, longevity – is not the point; Reproduction is. In the early days of life on this planet, the living environment was much harsher. Death happened…a lot. It can get complicated to define what makes an organism a separate unit, instead of just a group of cells, but I think it’s safe to say that life was comparatively short for our much less complex ancestors. They starved, were ravaged by infections and disease, fried by radiation, or eaten by others long before they could collect their pensions. From that perspective, the survival of a species really comes down to how many children one can spawn, and how much better suited to the environment the kids are.

This was cool for them back then. It was even cool for the Bo the caveman and his brethren as the same deadly dynamics were still much in play during his time. However, for the civilized man of the future i.e. me, this is bad. Everyday, I work towards defeating all of these factors that might separate me from life prematurely. I don’t go on safaris (no chance of ending up as some crazy lion’s lunch), I eat enough for 2 people (no chance of starvation), try to exercise every now then to stay healthy, etc. Modern society allows me to spend time developing my intellect, for instance by watching Jersey Shore. However, Selection (natural, group…whatever) has just not caught up. As a species, humanity is better now at successfully avoiding the stuff that would kill us off while we are young, and we are reproducing exceptionally well – RE: Octomom. In our relative old age, we are now encountering new killers that evolution simply has no answer for…yet: degenerative diseases, bone depletion etc. Put simply, solving one problem has simply allowed another one to emerge.

There are obviouly other theories around, including the idea that death is necessary for life to be the way it is, but I can’t get into them right now. At the end of the day the result is the same, whichever way you arrive there. We die. There is definitely a suckiness to this fact. This suckiness can be compounded by dwelling on how soon one might die. I know it has become a mini-obsession of mine since I officially became old this year. Turning 30 raises one’s all-round cheerlessness exponentially, at least in my experience. We can hear the Grim Reaper calling out to us (or maybe that’s just me). In any case, thoughts about death might arise a bit more as we grow older.

I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, considering one’s mortality can actually allow you to appreciate the time you have here more. I like life a lot more now. I love my wife, my children, friends and family. I am also able to remove unnecessary things from my life with more ease. I now work more on maximizing the good stuff, and minimizing the negative stuff. I just don’t know how much more time I have.

And sometimes death might be welcome. My comment on the I-95 traffic at the start of this piece is there for a reason. People will do extreme things to get away from it, like jumping off a bridge.

Besides, it’s what comes after death that’s the real problem for most of us when it really comes down to it, not the dying bit. Though I would rather not go out like the chap on the highway above.

More on this next time.

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