For the second time in 3 days, I learned of the death of a former classmate and it has shaken me. Both were my age. One had a heart attack and leaves behind a wife and 4 year old daughter. The second, while I have no information, I suspect it may have been an unnatural death.
As the father of a 1 year old, my mind, on occasion wanders to thoughts of leaving my wife and child behind. While I’m not old at 45, I’m considerably older than my wife. The death, natural or unnatural, of contemporaries makes ones fate that much more present.
You must not live in fear of death, it will come to everyone as sure as the sun rises and sets.
In some ways, the young have the advantage over more seasoned folks, in that they don’t think about death. I know I didn’t give it much thought. Young people tend to just live their lives one day at a time not worrying what tomorrow will bring. You can save yourself a lot of stress and anxiety that way.
Still, I think it’s important to keep death present especially if you have a family.
When your infant son is driving you up the wall climbing on the TV stand non-stop, you can smile because you have the time together or you can get angry, frustrated, and be miserable. My wife and I chose to shake our heads, smile, and buy a corral for the TV which we’ve had to zip tie to the stand.
Your world can change in the blink of an eye as mine did last year one month after my son was born. He will never know his grandmother. We spoke to her at lunch that day and all was fine, by dinner she had left us.
If you take nothing else away from reading this, in the history of the world, only 1 person has escaped death. There is not going to be a second person. (The afterlife is different). So live your life so that people will say nice things about you when you die.