It’s all very well investigating why the Grim Reaper might come to get us, but it’s where he takes us afterwards that’s the bigger research project for humanity. All the hullabaloo about the big “D” is there mostly because we don’t know what comes after. Well, at least I don’t. No one I know has returned to tell me about it. I, like most people, find that a wee bit disturbing. I want to know, you know?

The destination is a big deal when one is on a journey. Most people would argue that getting to said destination is the whole point. Knowing what is at the end is usually a requirement. This knowledge can change the dynamics of the trip. For instance, most people will readily put up with a whole bunch of trouble, if they get something worthwhile at the end of the day (What would you do for a Klondike bar, anyone?). They’ll be able to think about the end result and say “This will be over at some point, and then I’ll have what I want”. This can do wonders for the human mental state. Also, knowing what sort of party awaits one changes the clothes one might wear there. If I’m just gonna become nothing, then maybe I should live as intensely as possible. If we are going to become spirits for eternity then maybe the pursuit of wealth is not so important. The point is that if people know – and I mean really know – what, if anything, comes after death, then chances are they could act completely different in their daily lives.

In modern society, we have all of these sophisticated rules to govern our actions. Do this, you’ll get by fine. Do that, and we’ll lock you up. It’s a structure – a system, and we operate within it, one way or the other. Life and death can also be thought of as a system as well. Indeed, death itself is often depicted as punishment for not obeying the rules. That is the starting point of Chrisitianity, for instance. We are all tainted by sin and must now die. However, I have heard “preachers” claim that certain brutal acts of violence that took many lives were a “Judgment from God” to teach a lesson. One could point to the fact that, in the Old Testament, God himself flooded the world, destroyed cities, etc. The fundamentalists (Islam now has more than it’s fair share, but back in the day Christians routinely mass-murdered for God) want to “help” by doing some killing as well. Meanwhile, people often expect God to reward them by postponing their death sentence. All of this points to the fact that Life itself, along with certain creature-comforts (like a BMW, for instance), is often thought of as a reward. Still, it’s a question of time. Eventually, everybody dies. So, the most important bit of this whole system is the afterlife.

Oh, the afterlife. What is it? We wonder, we imagine, we dream, we speculate. Still, the answer eludes us…as it must until we actually get there. A large chunk of humanity takes it’s cue from Religion. In general, there are two ways things can go for you in the eyes of the religions of the world; Good or Bad. Good is clearly better. As a base, an eternity of the good life awaits you. The definition of this “good life” varies from being able to eat all the burgers in the world without clogging your arteries to having your way with no less than 72 virgins (if you are a guy. I am not sure what the option is for the ladies). The good life, I say. On the other hand, Bad is not so good. As a base, an eternity of “suffering” awaits you. Once again, just what that eternal suffering is varies widely. It could be physical torment, as in the flames of Hell. It could be you re-living certain events in your life over and over…an endless loop. Bottom line, you want to avoid this scenario if it’s at all possible.

The problem with this system is that it is, for the most part, very much like a standard school grading scale, except you don’t get rewarded for getting anything less than an A++. Good is the highest grade possible. Everything else falls under the “Bad” umbrella. Look at the guys who got the highest grades in your class; think about about how strange they are. Think about the guy who gets really excited talking about potential applications of Quantum Mechanics…could you be that weird? I didn’t think so. That’s why I have always figured that the vast majority of humanity is going to Hell.

Seriously though, the difficulty of making it to Heaven cannot be underestimated. There was one time – I was about thirteen – when I prayed so sincerely for forgiveness of my sins that I actually believed I would go to Heaven. It was a fantastic feeling. It also only lasted about five minutes. I never got it back after that. I just kept…you know…sinning. I suspect that some of the leaders of Christianity from the ancient times understood my feelings. The entry requirements were too stringent for most people so they came up with a pseudo-solution – Purgatory. The elite go to Heaven and the scum go to Hell. For the good folks who just weren’t on top form, they go to purgatory. Now, this place is hellish as well, but over a period of time, you get to “graduate” to the Heaven. Your torment will not be eternal, which works quite well for me. Well, it would if I bought into it. Even at 10 years old when I first heard about it, it struck me as a cop out.

Did you watch Lost? It was only the greatest T.V. show ever made. Anyway, for those of you poor souls who have not witnessed the phenomenon, it is basically about a group of plane-crash survivors stranded on an island. There was a massive debate about whether the island represented some sort of purgatory, or a trial for the people who were brought there. I’m trying not to spoil things here for those who might want to watch it, but the final season also dealt with the idea of limbo and a “preparing ground”, after death, but before moving on to the hereafter. The point is that ideas like these do span various cultures and backgrounds, even though I am looking at things from my own point of view.

A part of me is drawn to the depiction of the journey of death from ancient cultures. Think Hades…or the fantastic tales of forays into the underworld described in books like Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a thousand faces”. These tales are so romanticized and filled with all kinds of interesting stuff that one might be inclined to look forward to death. We leave this world behind and move on to the next, to join our ancestors at the grand table after crossing the great river, nourished by the loaf of bread that we were buried with. Certainly sounds more fun than purgatory.

I also like the ideas I have found in Eastern Philosophy (as much as it can be separated from Western Philosophy), and in modern science. Quantum Physics is so cool because there is so much of what could be termed spiritual “mumbo-jumbo” in it. The overlap with Buddhist ideas can be a little scary. Nothing really happens unless we observe it happening i.e. we create reality. That’s the stuff one would find in a New-Age book. In any case, the thrust of Eastern thought is an underlying connectedness of all things and events. What you think of as “you” is just a manifestation (or illusion) for the moment. Your “death” only ends this particular experience, and what is truly “you” goes on. It gets more complicated, depending on which teacher or school you explore, but that’s some idea of how things fall. You don’t have to worry about death, because it’s not really death at all. This is a powerful idea.

At the end of the day, whatever you believe – or don’t – you will die. Despite this fact, we live life. We plan, we build up stuff that we can’t afford to lose. We spend most of our lives working and try to save for the twilight years. There is nothing wrong with any of this. Life cannot stop because there is death. The issue is that we do all of this without really acknowledging death. We live our lives like we have all the time in the world, or at least 60 or 70 years. The idea that we could die at any moment is not really with us. Some of this is obviously because it is a little scary. There is so much going on. I can’t die right now. I have to do this, or do that. My family would be unable to go on, etc. Besides, why bother thinking about something that is likely to depress you?

But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to consider it just a little bit more. Older folks tend to have much more appreciation of life as it slips away from them. Life is sweet; every oxygen-breathing moment of it. Sometimes we forget that when problems come around. A regular reminder couldn’t hurt. I think it might serve us better if we look at life as a privilege we have for a limited time, and so live it accordingly. Also, a life filled with peace and joy is more likely to benefit you when death comes around. Chances are that if you live your life joyfully maybe, just maybe, Saint Peter might not have the heart to turn you back at the Pearly Gates.

So, maybe it’ll be just like flicking a light-switch; maybe my life will flash before my eyes; maybe there will be an overwhelming feeling of peace. I don’t know. But till then, I will certainly be trying to live everyday like it’s my last.

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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