Lets talk about death, as a refreshing change from all the cheerful topics discussed during this pandemic. Or something.
I’ve read lots of books in my time, most of them light headed fluff that comes in handy when you need a laugh. The theme of most books is the conquest of a hero over a monster who fears death. But somehow, that confused me. Surely, there are things worse than death?
In my more serious pursuits, I’ve read of POWs who were tortured to such an extent that they welcomed death as a release from all their troubles. I know surgeries that went terribly wrong, and left the patients with a deformity, or worse, a disability for life. I’ve heard of people going mad with sorrow. Surely, it would have been a blessing for these people to have popped the proverbial cork, than to continue living a half- life, giving pain to both themselves and their loved ones?
On the other hand, I know incredibly strong people who have defied the life expectencies set by medical professionals and lived full, happy lives with unimaginable pains. Would it be fair to have not given such people a chance?
It now brings us to a reflection on the rigid nature of human laws, and on how it doesn’t accommodate the characters, situations and requirements of the people in question. If it did, however, perhaps it would be used to twist the very nature of the laws to serve the purpose of criminals.
Which brings us again to the topic at hand. Do criminals deserve death? Does anybody?
What happens after death? Entire religions have been build to answer this question, and still serve as placeholders till science answers this question for us. If it can, that is.
Sometimes I walk out into the night and look at the light of the stars coming from the past, and wonder what I’m doing with my life. Everything around us is artificial and temporary, and death is the final, and yet we go on living, as if death can’t happen to us today, as if it’s not stalking all of us in the shadows, waiting to strike. As if one day, you and I won’t be a part of the historical light that falls into the eye of some alien creature, who is also perhaps thinking about death. And yet, we work for tomorrow, and hope that it’s better than to day. And yet, we go on.
