On Death and Dying … a Conversation
By L. Stewart Marsden
“Are you afraid?”
“Of dying, or death?”
“Of either.”
“Of dying — well I’m a little wary of that part. I have a low threshold for pain, you know.”
“What about death?”
“That’s the easy part. Everybody before me, and everybody after me has and will do it. I think we have it wrong, though.”
“How’s that?”
“Most are convinced it’s a final destination. Like the beach.”
“The beach?”
“Sure. You think about your trip for months on end. You imagine the warm sun and the calming surf and the lack of hurry or care. All of that anticipation.”
“Ok.”
“You pack your car with everything you’ll need, and map out your route, then jump in and start the engine.”
“Right.”
“Along the way you might hit traffic, or a detour — maybe even a wreck or two along the way.”
“Uh-huh.”
“At some point you begin to smell it in the air. The salt. That first indication you are very near. And you get impatient to get there. Or to be the first person in your car to see the ocean.”
“Yes.”
“You arrive, and you get together with your family, who’ve all arrived from different places, traveling different routes, and you mill about and greet one another. Then the inevitable question: how long did it take you to get here?”
“I see.”
“Yeah. So in a way dying is like your trip to the beach, and death is arriving at the beach.”
“Does everyone make it to the beach? You mentioned wrecks along the way.”
“You mean the heaven or hell thing?”
“If you like.”
“Kind of where the metaphor breaks down. So the way I see it, the beach isn’t the destination.”
“No?”
“The better metaphor –– at least the way I see it –– is labor and birth.”
“Why?”
“Labor is what we conceive as our life. In labor, we ease down the birth canal, and there are trying times along the way. We are distorted and pushed on every side. It’s cramped, dark, and –– frankly, uncomfortable most of the journey.
“Then, towards the end, we begin to see a little daylight ahead, and that daylight gets brighter and brighter. So does the pain and the difficulty. Again, maybe we get stuck. But you see we aren’t with anyone else. It’s just us. Just me. Just you. Our individual gauntlet to face and bear. Finally, we emerge –– to the applause of those waiting our arrival. We are swept up and held close and cradled in the arms of Someone who has been patiently anticipating us.”
“And who is that Someone?”
“You want me to say God, right?”
“I want to know what you think. You can say whatever you like.”
“I don’t know the answer to that, only that I’m excited to find out.”
“So you aren’t afraid you’re going to end up in one place or other?”
“Let me ask you something.”
“Okay.”
“You believe in God?”
“I do.”
“And is God male or female?”
“I don’t know.”
“Loving or strict?”
“I’d say both.”
“So there’s room in God’s lexicon for the two to exist juxtaposed?”
“Juxtaposed isn’t a word I would use, but, yes.”
“So a loving and strict God can appoint my afterlife to either a heavenly or hellish eternity?”
“Are you afraid of hell?”
“Do you mean, am I sure of my eternal destination?”
“I suppose.”
“For a complicated and unknowable God, that question seems too simplistic.”
“Well, how do you see it, then?”
“More complicated, of course. I’m not so sure our heavens and hells are after we die, but before it. And I’m not so sure we have only one life and death.”
“You believe in reincarnation?”
“Not in the sense I come here as human, live and die, and come back as a caterpillar.”
“Then how?”
“Have you lived a perfect life?”
“Of course not.”
“But a good life?”
“I try.”
“Why?”
“Why try? I suppose it’s in my nature to do the best I can.”
“Is it enough?”
“Enough for what?”
“To get into heaven.”
“To get into heaven you must be born …”
“Again! Exactly!”
“It’s a spiritual rebirth. Not a physical one.”
“Are you sure?”
“I –– we’re talking about you, not me.”
“I’m absolutely fine with the rebirth thing. It makes sense to me. I was, I am, and I will be. Even the Bible says ‘you are gods.’”
“That’s not what it means.”
“No? Are you sure? When Christ said, ‘It is finished,’ what did he mean by that?”
“He meant that the battle between good and evil was finished. That his death –– his blood and his body –– were the atonement for the sins of Man.”
“And you believe that?”
“I do.”
“So it was a done deal?”
“A done deal.”
“Then why hell?”
“Beg your pardon?”
“That’s why I’m not afraid of death. God has something far more wonderful for me than I can ever imagine. IF what you say is true.”
“So you do believe in God?”
“What I believe … will it change anything?”
“In what way?”
“In terms of me living or dying. This body of mine is going to wear out. Built-in obsolescence.”
“It won’t change whether you will die or not. It might change how you live, however.”
“But, everything I’ve done up to this point in my life –– none of that will be undone? I can’t take the bad things back, right?”
“Right.”
“What if I could? What if this life of mine is like a slinky toy, and it spirals slowly, each circumnavigation a lifetime?”
“A slinky is analogous to reincarnation?”
“Crude, I know –– but it serves my purpose. Let’s add another element. Do you believe in the laws of physics?”
“What I understand of them.”
“Well, gravity is the easiest, I suppose. The apple from the tree thing. Are you familiar with the Law of Conservation of Energy?”
“That energy always exists in some form or fashion, never diminishing?”
“Close enough.”
“It’s a theory, I believe.”
“Ah, like heaven and hell? But you understand heaven and hell to be spiritual absolutes, and Conservation of Energy is an absolute scientific law.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that I –– me –– the energy of who I am –– will not dissipate nor diminish. Not ever. Not one iota. It may transfer to a different form, but it won’t be lost.”
“So you think you are eternal?”
“Have been for a very long time now.”
“And by that you are equal to the god who created you?”
“Didn’t say that. I am the product of whatever caused me to be created. I am energy. Like everything around us. By virtue of that, I –– or my energy –– will be forever.”
“Namaste.”
“Don’t be sarcastic. If you think about it, it’s hard to argue against.”
“So it’s black and white with you, then?”
“Explain, please.”
“Science and what you call incontrovertible fact or theory, versus the existence of an all-knowing, supreme being.”
“I didn’t say that. I’m certainly open to an omniscient being. But I’m also open to the thought we could be in the bedroom of a four-year-old who is controlling all of this! Which is less absurd?”
“You compare God to a four-year-old?”
“It’s the Old Testament/New Testament contrast. To me, after all of the stuff in the Old Testament, God grew up a bit. Like that bit with Abraham and Isaac. He didn’t know Abraham was going to be obedient and would actually kill his own son? How’s that possible? Was that for Abraham’s sake? Or did he figure The paparazzi was going to start showing up at these events? So he learned from his own creation, and looked over and chose his son to come down and make things right.”
“Hush your mouth!”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I mean, how could God ever learn something from his own creation? Is that outside the scope of possibility? I thought all things are possible with God.
“Seems to me there’s enough evidence –– especially over the millennia –– that humankind has been going through this very slow slinky toy evolution process. We are learning that our impulses for power and dominance over each other and the world we live in are not the ones to guide us –– especially if one rejects the concept of survival of the fittest –– which has usually meant the most physically powerful and aggressive.
“What if survival of the fittest meant mentally and emotionally and spiritually fit? What then?More and more of us are rejecting how things have been, learning from the results of those base and instinctive primitive impulses. Fear and hate of those different from us. Clear-cutting and ravaging the land and its resources.
“So you asked am I afraid of death? Just the dying part. Mostly because I’m a wimp. But to me, being dead is either going to be mental oblivion, or rebirth, and a chance to continue that progressive evolution trend towards something bigger and better and kinder and more satisfying. I can die with that.
Writing Odds n Ends 