We are control freaks! We want to control everything in our lives, including our deaths. Most of us like the idea of heaven, but we want to make sure A. It really does exists. B. It is to our liking. C. We die at a time convenient to us. When it comes right down to it, we are not a trusting creature.
The first problem with dying is we really aren’t sure that heaven exists. Most of the major religions in the world say it does, but what do they know? It could be a trick. We could die and discover too late that instead of harps and clouds, all we have are worms and dirt or even worse nothing. We could just not exist. Isn’t that a scary thought? Us without us. Of course, whatever the afterlife was like, we have experienced it one time before. Apparently, wherever we were didn’t bother us before we were born, or did it?
The second problem with dying is we aren’t sure we can control our environment once we get there. I mean, what if I die and there are football games playing on flat screen TVs and all there is to eat and drink is beer and nachos? Or, what if you are given everything you need and there is no shopping? Is playing a harp all day really that rewarding? Or what if you are reunited with all those people you really didn’t like in the first place, but this time you are stuck with them for eternity?
The last problem about dying is most of us can’t pick our time to die. Not all of us are like Mark Twain and live from comet to comet. Most of us will die when we are least expecting it. We may die before we had a chance to change those underwear, before we burned that diary, or before we have grandchildren. We will never be able to hear those words every parent longs for, “I understand, now.”
No, dying is a scary thing for most of us. Every the most religious of us still have our questions and concern or as one poet said, most of us will “not go quietly into that good night.”
