We prepare for all of life’s major events. We prepare for the birth of a baby. We prepare for the education of a child. We prepare to embark upon our chosen vocation. We prepare for marriage. We prepare for retirement. It’s not hard to see where this is leading. How do we prepare for death? Death is at least as significant a time as all of the other life events. I have a will, an estate plan, and life insurance. Great! But that is preparing for events after death.
Usually death doesn’t happen immediately, and even when death is immediate they say that your entire life runs through your thoughts. So what are you going to be thinking about as you exercise your human consciousness for the last time? I’m still working on this one for myself. My first job would be to be brave in the face of any pain that might accompany me, so as to bring comfort to those who would share my pain. I’ll be all right up until the time I can no longer post on ILP posting.php?mode=post&f=5&sid=9a2f3be85c060a9d12a8cd860be28264#
.
My job at this stage would be to set an example of how to die. I would express as much love and concern as possible to anyone that I can make contact with (we all should do this all the time, but I think the deathbed will make this easier, as fear of doing this should pale in the face of death) . This will have a dual purpose. 1) I’ll get my mind off of myself and 2) It will help decrease fear of death and fear of loss in those around me. Then, when my sense of touch, hearing, and sight go, I will be all alone. My last thoughts will be clanging around the cavernous emptiness of my head and I will think these things.
“Its not a meaningless death. In my lifetime my actions have had good and bad affects on the world. But, I spent my life making sure that the good I did outweighed the bad. In my lifetime, I have experienced the kindness of others to me, and I have experienced hurt at the hands of others. But, I spent my life making sure that I added to and passed on the good that was done to me, while I just soaked up the harm that was done to me. So my death is useful, in that I am taking the bad I endured out of the world with me. That makes the world a better place. That helps others be better people …some bad did not promulgate bad, but goes to the grave with me. That was my duty; that’s the meaning of life.â€
So its not just my planned last thoughts. My preparation for death really involves trying to do more good than bad throughout my life. I figure that I should put at least as much effort into it as I do preparing for retirement.