This idea can be addressed from a number of different angles. We have the religious/spiritual angle. The potential pain associated with dying. There’s the disappointment angle. Fear of the unknown. Ad infinitum. And of course, any or all of these can be combined to varying degrees.
In fact, I’ll be so bold as to say that the fear of the unknown is, in some part, the biggest factor and is a subset of any of the other fears. As an example, let’s look at religion.
Let’s say you believe in God and the whole heaven/hell thing. Even if you’re one of the most righteous people you know-deep down, you know you’re a sinner-we all are. What if your belief system is wrong. Suppose just asking for Jesus to come into your life isn’t enough. I mean-hell? For all of eternity? Just because you weren’t quite righteous enough? If that doesn’t scare you, nothing will.
Okay, forget God. What about the method of death? How’s drowning strike your fancy? How about being run over by a bus? Fire, anyone? Yeah, in that case it’s not so much death we fear as dying. How long does the pain last ’til we hit “the big sleep.” I imagine, in any of those cases, you’d just be beggin’ God to “GET ME OUT.” All kidding aside, there’s another unknown-pain.
And what about the disappointment thing? Are any of us going to live long enough to say we accomplished what we wanted? Is life long enough for anyone to be able to say, “Yes, I’ve done it all-take me now.”?
In then end, it all boils down to fear of the unknown. If there’s a God, was I good enough? Is it going to hurt? Did I get it all done? And, in the end, there’s two ways to live.
Every day, we’re one day closer to death. So, we can all, honestly, say we’re dying. We can live this way and fear death.
Or, we can take that knowledge (We’ve all just let one more day drip off the calendar, and we’re one day closer to death) and use it to kick ourselves in the ass. Don’t spend each day dying. Give each day a new reason to want to be alive.
It’s true. We’re all going to die. So, either choose to live in fear-or choose to live.
