To Be Asleep

I've always liked to see death as the end of a long train journey. To leave this world with a sense of anticipation, catharsis and relieving the tension of one's legs has become something of a desire for me. A friend of mine lost their grandfather a week or two back, and it shocked me. It made death far more immediate than it already was, and I was deeply sorry for her. Equally so, it got me thinking about what death actually means. The meaning of death, if you will. If we figure out that, then we'll be closer to figuring out the meaning of life.

The answer to the common riddle 'What question can you never answer yes to?' is 'Are you asleep?'. In fact, if two people were put in the same conditions with the same people observing - they can't tell the difference between a dead person and one who's simply asleep. Death is to be asleep. Forever. This is the best, most rational, explanation we can find and we'll likely never figure something out that's better. Yet it appears to be so much more. When confronted with death, people often lose themselves - who they really are. They encounter a crisis of character - are they this person or that - all because of death. Yet what is death and what is its character?

An executioner is the best possible human rendition of death in history. They are trained to be indifferent and refrain from empathy. Death is similar - undiscriminatory, indifferent to who or what they're killing, yet like the executioner, death is not evil. Death is pure, death is good and death is loving. There is no greater catharsis in death. Catharsis is the kindest thing a grieving person can be given, and in the long run, when all life and death is over, that will be what matters, as far as we need to be concerned.