Death and Its Perks

On a tombstone:
"Remember man, as you walk by, 
As you are now, so once was I. 
As I am now, so shall you be. 
Remember this and follow me. "

-Anonymous

Unable to find the perfect chemistry with my pillows and sheets last night, I typed on google "sad quotes" and clicked on the first Search Result. hehe, lame hobby, lame google search, but very interesting result. Since when did death become a sad event?

Death is one of the most contorted word, together with love, happiness and joy --I guess no word can escape the contextual abuse in our present generation. Death may mean physical decay, departure from life, or simply, end. I can even die without dying. "I haven't done my homeworks yet; Im dead. I have a huge zit; my social death will kick me off from the cheer squad. Dieeeee zit!" How can death be sad when everyone has experienced their own death without lying in a coffin or being buried six feet under?

But death, being left by a loved one, or just simply being alone because life has to end is undeniably what scares most of us. Death is inevitable. No one has yet discovered a black hole that could be a possible tunnel for escaping death. If death is expected to happen to all of us, why waste a tear for the departed one? If Death slits his scythe on your neck during an unexpected timing, wouldn't it be less of a burden for you that you don't have to wait for Death's welcome party to his lair anymore? Why does the death of another person make us feel more dead than the dead?

I guess it's not death per se that "kills" us. Death and love have their most ironic and maybe undesirable relationship, because it is when the two combine that makes it the saddest thought. The death of a loved one is the period on the fourth line of a five-line essay, and you do not know what to write next. It's not the moment of death that scares us; it is the thought of the coming days without having any clue what will happen now that your loved one has left for good. It is as well the period on your fifth line when you wanted a sixth one to wrap up your thoughts. It is the feeling of regret and dissatisfaction when you haven't checked all that's on your bucket list.

Death is of the corpse, a ceased rotten body, but only the living think of;  It is the living that mourn about death.

But death is the most liberating thing that could ever happen to you. It's not just a period; it's an exclamation point to the essay you yourself have written.  It is only upon it that you free yourself from all the shackles during your earthly life. Death needs not be just about weeping. It's not all about the tears and the lonely days you have to face. Death, if confronted without fear or regret, can be the most rewarding gift for some. It is the finish line that everyone has  to cross, and it's how fast you ran that counts.


Whether or not death is the saddest event on earth, it does not have be feared, for death has its own perks. We, the living, should not look towards Death's direction, not because we are cowards, but because when we soak ourselves in thoughts of dying and succumbing to death no matter what we do, it might be the greatest hindrance for us to live fully. No matter how much we are aware that we are all going to die, it should not stop us from living.