Why do human beings die so miserably, so unhappily, with a disease, old age, senility, the body shrunk, ugly? Why can’t they die naturally and as beautifully as this leaf? What is wrong with us? In spite of all the doctors, medicines and hospitals, operations and all the agony of life, and the pleasures too, we don’t seem able to die with dignity, simplicity, and with a smile…
As you teach children mathematics, writing, reading and all the business of acquiring knowledge, they should also be taught the great dignity of death, not as a morbid, unhappy thing that one has to face eventually, but as something of daily life—the daily life of looking at the blue sky and the grasshopper on a leaf.
Could a blood test predict whether a person is at risk of committing suicide? For the first time, a set of proteins in the blood have been linked to suicidal behaviour. People who commit suicide appear to share a number of biological traits, regardless of any underlying conditions. This hints that suicidal behaviour may be a distinct disorder. [1]
Oh, how are we afraid of the unknown. How do we despise the unexplained.
We hate seeing people doing things we do not understand. They MUST have a reason to do it! A reason WE can understand!
Put the unknown into the small little boxes of your brain. Destroy it.
A new study shows that people who are pessimists are to live a longer and healthier life than the ones who see sunny days even when in the middle of the wildest storm. [1]
I always wondered why humans are allowed to be pessimistic in the first place.
Why would Nature allow us to think badly for the future? After all, why not fool yourself that everything will go OK? Either way, what will happen will happen. Or do we really think we can alter the flow of the Universe?
At the end, life seems to be pessimistic it self. Death is its final destination. How stupid must you to be optimistic?
A British couple’s round-the-world cycling odyssey ended in tragedy when both of them were killed in a road accident in Thailand.
Peter Root and Mary Thompson, who had been chronicling their journey in a blog, died Wednesday when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok, Thai police said Monday.
The couple, both 34 and from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, left Britain in July 2011 and had cycled through Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China. The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the couple, who met in art school and spent six years saving money and planning their journey. (1)
Diagoras of Rodes
This reminds me of the story of Diagoras of Rhodes (Διαγόρας ὁ Ῥόδιος)…
His three sons were Olympic champions. The oldest son, Damagetos, won the pankration in 452 and 448 BC. Akousílaos, the second son, won the boxing in 448 BC. The two celebrated their victory by carrying their father around the stadion on their shoulders, cheered loudly by the spectators. This was considered the peak of happiness that a human being could experience, achieving great glory and yet having this glory matched or even surpassed by one’s own children. Legend has it that during Diagoras’ triumphant ovation on the shoulders of his sons, a spectator shouted:
Κάτθανε, Διαγόρα, οὐ καὶ ἐς Ὅλυμπον ἀναβήσῃ
Die, Diagoras, for Olympus you will not ascend
the meaning being that he has reached the highest honor possible for a man. Indeed Diagoras died on the spot, and was since considered the very happiest mortal that ever lived. (2)
I don’t know about you, but dying with the person you love while doing what you always dreamed of doing, sounds IDEAL to me!!! I don’t know if I will go to “Olympus” or Paradise any time soon… But I will try to live well and die well at least. And if I am lucky, that mystic process called death may take a snapshot of my happiness to put it in the Universe’s wall for ever…
