| Our daily news is sprinkled with dreaded information concerning death.
Hardly a radio broadcast or a telecast goes by but that a fateful plane crash, a terrible
automobile or bus collision, fires, tornadoes or automobile accidents tell us of the
grisly aftermath of yet another terrible tragedy wherein people die. Hardly a day goes by, especially in our larger urban areas, but that our daily news is seasoned with the gruesome details of the latest domestic shootout, murder-suicide or kidnap-murder of a helpless child. Add to this the countless thousands who die form "natural causes" (including the daily obituaries in hundreds of newspapers containing columns of names of those who have died in their 60s, 70s and 80s through various diseases), and the death toll each day is staggering—enormous. When one of these deaths strikes close to home, it is always as if you have been subjected to a terrible blow. The unacceptable trauma and shock of hearing of the death of a loved one has sometimes caused, merely through the dread, fear, hatred and unacceptability of the event, another death! Spouses have followed their mates to the grave in less than days because of the all-consuming dread and fear of the hated unknown—death—that took their loved one away from them. Instinctively we realize death is our enemy. We abhor death, shun it, hate to look at it, don't want to come in contact with it. Yet it happens to all of us; we will all have to face it someday. Should we really fear death? |
