"If I Die"

Humans are funny.  Maybe humans in North America are even more funny. Perhaps my topic brings out the unusual logic of North Americans.  I do not know.  What I do know is that once the topic of death comes up, I am liable to hear some unusual comments.  I have heard many times “If I die…” From banker I heard, “Should you die….” I had a client once say to me while preparing for a burial, “I never thought it would come to this…”  It is as if many of us somehow think that things will be different for us.  Perhaps the order of nature will be overthrown and we will not have to face our death or those we love.  I understand that the topic of death makes people feel uncomfortable.  I understand that we do not like thinking that one day our lives will be entrusted to story and memory.  I had a professor who often told us, “One day you will be as flat as the ground.” Granted, it is not a cheery message, but I was always glad for the reality check.  Sometimes reality is not so cheery and from time to time we do well to look reality in the face.  The truth of reality is we are born and we die.  We just don’t always know the ending of our lives.  We don’t always get the chance to do all the things we had hoped to do.  We may not even die the death we hope for.  One day we will die.  That is just the reality of life. We may as well live our life well.