July 10th

BY: MIKE

AN ESSAY ABOUT DEATH...

"If tears could build a stair way, and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again."
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The knight of shadows...

From all the things in the world that scare people, there is one that definitely causes more fear than any other one, and that is, of course, death. All living beings in this planet are facing death every single days of their lives, in the case of humans, this is not the exception, the knight of shadows is everywhere, it doesn't matter the place, or the moment, it moves smoothly through the wind, bringing peace or horror to the world of living. Are you afraid of death? Or are you one of those who believe in the afterlife? It does not matter, because in this essay, I shall try to explore the different points of view about this mysterious entity (Or event, if you prefer) that we cannot escape from, why it is so unfair sometimes, why it causes so much pain, why we are afraid of it, why we are not keen to talk about it, among others... - Without haste but without rest: What is death? Is it just an event that we cannot escape from? Or is it an omnipresent entity (Typically imagined with a scythe) that comes to cut out the line that keep us connected to this world? Most of people like to think in death as the latter, believing in a supernatural being whose victims have to be venerated, in fact, veneration of the dead is something quite common in the world, one way or another, people are always remembering those who are not in this world anymore, going to the cemetery, leaving flowers on the graves, talking to them, or even more, like special ceremonies. Veneration of the dead is based on the belief that those who are not in the world of the living (Often family members) are still influencing our lives, having the ability to help us, providing favors or assistance, if you are catholic, for example, you will understand better this part, many times in this life we feel a lack of strength, we feel that we cannot continue anymore, so we pray to those who, in our beliefs, are beyond, strangely, even though some skeptic people would think that you look weird talking to the air, doing it brings a strange feeling of peace, Is that a gift from beyond? Or just the power of our mind? Who knows...But the existence of souls is a hope that we cling to in order to feel better prepared for that moment, a gift from God, the promise of immortality for those who believe in him. ('He who believes in me will live, even though he dies')

- Time flies so fast... When we are young we feel that we have immunity against all bad things in this world, we experience a strange feeling of immortality, doing so many dangerous (And stupid) things (Most of the time to impress our friends) driving our cars fast, performing acrobatics in our bikes (Sometimes, with terrible results and painful injuries) and so on...But gradually, that feeling of immortality decreases, and we do not feel as powerful as we used to, this is the effect of the passing of time, one day you are a teenager, and the next one you are an adult...First, time is your friend, but then, in a second, life is completely different and you are fighting in a battle you know you are going to lose, what is going on? Did our ancestors had the same feeling in the past? Is our perception of the time different from what it used to be? Most of people to whom I have asked this question say 'Yes' and why? Because of all the different activities that we can do nowadays, in the past, for instance, we didn't have computers, or cars, or smart phones, so the time was spent with our families, and maybe that caused that the perception of the time was quite different from now, think about it, you play computer games and then you realize that you have been there for hours! People are feeling the same everywhere, it seems that the same improvements that we have these days, are causing death to appear earlier in our lives.

- Stay away from me! There are many ones who believe in the existence of an afterlife, death, under this conception, is no more than the transition into another kind of reality, the soul is not able to keep the body alive anymore, so, it has to leave it, while the mortal remains go back to earth. Anyway, even though faith gives us the power to defeat fear, sometimes it is not enough, even if you believe in the existence of another world where souls live forever, the sadness that we feel when someone that we love passes away is unbearable, sometimes, such a pain cannot be overcome and the only expectation that we have is that some day we shall be together one more time, it doesn't matter if you believe in God or not, I think that if we had the chance to choose, we all would prefer to be the one who dies instead of staying here suffering the pain of seeing someone else we love passing away, but at the same time and if life after life is true, that would cause us a terrible sadness too, because it would be awful to see our relatives crying for us, while we are where we are supposed to...It does not matter the viewpoint, death is always going to cause suffering and fear...That is why, instead of facing the true while we have time, we decide not to talk about it, and face it just when the moment arrives, I think that it is for this reason that many people is so scared when they have to leave, what do we have to do then? Well, living our lives without forgetting about death seems to be a good idea, if we accept it, it will not scare us as much as if we didn't do that...Right?

- Beyond death: When I was writing the outline of this essay, I couldn't avoid feeling the strong necessity of writing about this interesting topic, the life after life, the existence of the soul, and so on. First of all, I would like to have a definition about what the afterlife is. Afterlife is the belief that a part of us (Our 'soul') the same that gives us our identity, our energy, survives to the death of the body by supernatural means. Some people believe that our souls goes to the place that corresponds (Heaven, purgatory or hell) and that is all, this plane of existence is different from ours, and the place that we deserve is decided by God according to our actions or beliefs during our physical life. This is very interesting to analyze, but there is also another conception, and that is the 'reincarnation' Under this idea, the spiritual development continues after death as the deceased begins another earthly life in the physical world, acquiring a superior grade of consciousness by means of successive reincarnations, in every new earthly life, our thoughts of the previous one are forgotten. This succession leads toward an eventual liberation, which is the perfection of soul when it doesn't need a body anymore. - NDE: Many people in the world have lived a NDE (Near Death Experience) in their lives, and the testimonies of what they have seen in that state are quite similar to each other, the feeling was so great that they didn't want to come back to earth anymore, a feeling of levitation, in some cases extreme fear, in some others total serenity, security or warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light at the end of a blue tunnel. Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory, while paranormal specialists and religious people regard them to be evidence of an afterlife.

- It is so unfair... I know that this is going to sound a bit shocking for some of you, but I'm sure that you have had the same feeling or thought before, sometimes, death is so unfair, there are so many people out there who want to die, take those who commit suicide as an example, think about their lives, think about all the bad things that they suffered, how many times did they call to the knight of shadows having no response? Countless...At the end, they had to finish with their agony by themselves, and according to many religious people, the souls of those who do this are punished, they will be condemned to wander forever, having no permission to enter to heaven or purgatory. Now, let's go to the other side, think about those who are happy with their lives, doing everything that they love to do, how many times we have seen on TV people that is killed, or had an accident that finished with all they had? Destroying their families' feelings and bringing a sad atmosphere to the existence of their relatives? Countless too...And the words of those who cannot explain why that happened are always the same 'He/she was such a good person,

he/she did not deserve this, I can't believe it...'

- Strange coincidences: There are so many strange things out there, I know that you have thought about this before, too, I don't know if coincidences exist, or if everything that we do in our lives is predestined, It doesn't matter, because you have paid attention, for sure, to the 'strange chain of events' that happened before someone died, everything seemed to be perfectly connected, so It couldn't be affected by humans' actions. Definitely, it seems that when the knight of shadows has to end someone's life, there is nothing we can do to stop it...

- The end is here... We have analyzed different information about death in this essay, in my personal opinion, I think that this is a fascinating topic to talk about, there are so many things out there that we do not comprehend, and death is, undeniably, one of the most interesting ones. People have always wanted to know what happens when the heart stop beating, some of them feel comforted with the idea of an afterlife, they believe in God and that fills them with hope for the future, some others think that this life is all we have, and the soul is just an invention of humans to explain something that they can't. Remember, regardless of your opinion, I think that we all have to keep in mind the idea that one day, our life is going to end, only accepting death as a part of the life, we shall be able to lose (Or reduce) our level of fear, do not wait until the last moment, you don't want to be extremely scared, do you? Meanwhile, the knight of shadows is looking for more victims...

Thanks for reading...

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