The Attitude To Life And Death

Live and die joyfully

I always view life as a journey of joy. The purpose of life to me means living with contentment and living a normal natural life.

If you spend all your time with yourself, make a lot of noise about the food that you eat, have a lot of complaints against others, and consider yourself to be a king in your palace or a queen in your territory without any interaction, it is not a normal life.

Most people over the years become tired and bored of life and make a retreat and stop living. Yet these people are also scared of dying. They never consider it as a release from life.

A little illness and they will worry to hell about themselves and want to live as long as they can. They are very scared to talk about death and would like to wish it away.

What kind or type of person you classify as depends on your attitude towards life and death.

I want to live my life to the fullest and be prepared to die when death comes. I am not scared of death.

My octogenarian friends and their attitude to life and death

The other day 4 friends of mine, all in their 80’s came home for lunch. I find them enjoying life and wanting to meet everyone constantly. I always want them to have a great time and they are happy because I am much younger, I give them my time and enjoy spending time with them.

Let me describe their attitude to life.

The eldest of them is single. She is 85 and so smart. She travels and lives on her own with grace. She gives lectures on philosophy and takes life as it goes.

One of them has had many osteoarthritis problems and fragile bones with surgeries galore. She never misses an opportunity to dress up and enjoy life.

The third one is fit but has asthma problems. She is widowed. She brought up her husband’s two daughters from an earlier marriage and since both parents died she was brave enough to bring them up both along with her son. I recently attended her granddaughter’s wedding. She too is enjoying life.

The 4th one has a good life with her husband who takes good care of her. She finds it extremely difficult to walk and needs help but she is happy meeting people and likes to move around.

As you can see all four of them have a great attitude towards the positivity of life. Yet, when it comes to death none are prepared or ever think that life is a phase, a journey, and who knows how much it lasts?

Two of these friends never attend a death. They think it is a taboo subject and we should never speak about death. One was very difficult. She was upset with me. Put up her hands and began to fret. “Don’t talk about death.”

She was wishing it away

When I started speaking about death she vehemently stopped me from even talking about death. I explained to her that it is a natural part of one's life and there is no harm in discussing it but she felt too scared even about talking of death.

She hushed me up and almost shouted. Do not speak about death it is so negative. I neither attend nor speak about it.

If no one goes to a funeral whose responsibility will it be to bid goodbye to the departed?

Attitude towards death

There is a story that I heard when I was young. My mother explained to me that we live in the circle of life and death and we should never be scared of death. Whoever comes to this world also departs. It is a natural part of one’s life and should be accepted.

Sometimes there are very young deaths that is where we need to think for so far life is not in our hands.

The story stated that there was a very wealthy man. He lived a luxurious life. He went for a holiday and was standing at the seaside.

He saw a lot of fishermen and decided to talk to them. They all seemed busy fishing and he went unnoticed.

Finally, he touched a fisherman and shouted. “Hey, I want to talk to you. I am a wealthy man and I want to find out why you lead such a dangerous life?”

The fisherman replied, “We are used to a life of hardship.”

The wealthy man persisted in looking at the fisherman’s zest for life in dangerous seas and living by selling fish every day.

The fisherman said “My father died in the dangerous seas, and my grandfather and uncle too were swept by the shores. I will continue to live here as I enjoy the sea so much”

The wealthy man was shocked. He said, “So many people in your family died in the seas and you still want to be near the sea?”

In return, the fisherman questioned the wealthy man “Where is your father?”

The wealthy man said, “My father passed away at a young age. He is no more.”

“How did he die?” “He died of a heart attack,” said the wealthy man.

There you are the fisherman chided the wealthy man.

We live in the cycle of life and death. People who are born will die whether in the sea or off the sea. Why not enjoy your life by doing what you like to do and say goodbye happily when death comes?

“I take ample protection. These days there are many types of clothing available for protecting the body. Even then if the sea wants to swallow me it is welcome to do so”.

To wrap up

There are so many learnings from this fisherman. I applaud his attitude towards life and death.

It is the attitude towards life that is important. You can smile and live a life or cry and do so. Death is the finality of life. It is not going to happen whether you are near the sea or at home. When it comes go happily. Stop being afraid of death.

The attitude towards death should be just the same as the attitude towards life. Live a joyful life and die joyfully too.

©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2023.

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