THE CASUALNESS OF DEATH
In the end , Death is casual and matter of fact
Like the breaking of a glass or plate
Or the wearing out of a string or a rope that you hang out the washing on
The heart muscles just give way
Or your neck breaks
Or a vital organ is perforated
It’s mechanical, really .
Machine starts , machine stops or breaks ,
is repaired , lasts some more time ,
then stops and is beyond repair .
Or it’s shattered or irreparably damaged in the first go itself .
Life lives in a body , which is a machine after all :
a biological machine with feelings conscience and consciousness added
but a machine still and one a with finite lifespan .
In the end Death is simple .
One moment a person is alive , the next , he is no more .
The breath no longer comes and goes .
Life , the soul, consciousness , slips out of the casing of the body .
Of course there is an emotional fall out
and a practical one .
People around the person who dies are often sad ;
in some ways, also inconvenienced .
They mourn , some brood .
Some think of their own possible mortality.
In the end , other people
Even those whose lives seemed to revolve around you
Have to get on with the business of living
The dead are soon forgotten by most
Though they linger sometimes lifelong in the hearts and memories of those who have been close to them
Those to whom they have given love and / or kindness and / or service
That’s just how it is
How much thought and worry and emotion we spend on Death , though !
Like birth or marriage or migration or parting
Like breathing and eating and walking and talking
Like a job change or a transfer
Sometimes planned with due notice
In other cases unplanned and sudden
Death happens
It has to . It’s inevitable.
Have wholesale deaths around me numbed me ?
Made me unfeeling ?
Made me write this ?
Perhaps .
We develop defenses.
We look for catharsis .
We are programmed to survive.
For as long as death spares those of us who are living -
each one separately for his or her own duration .
I’m a bit tired of Death, aren’t you ?
It can hurt me but it cannot scare me .
I’d rather laugh . I need to.
For Death has so loved so many friends of mine
that it has taken them away with itself,
and that makes me think it probably wants to be friends with me too .
Bit bizarre but the feeling persists .
One of these days we’ll walk out into the sunset for a drink, I think .
It’s about time I got to know Death better .
Hello, Stranger !
Author: Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia