Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Reflections of a Pessimist

Why death is so much important in our lives and also at the same time unacceptable? Is it because of the fear of the unknown or something that signifies the end of something considered to be the epitome of vibrant potentialities and hopes i.e.life. We hate endings,be it anything, don't we? What we are afraid of then, beginning of an unknown realm or end of known world?
Have we noticed how much death is absent in our everyday conversations? We shiver, we feel uncomfortable at the utterance of it. some show it. some not. We become silent whenever we witness or hear about somebody's death, be it an accident, or a natural one. However, in case of suicides (which more often than not mainly remain as 'attempts'), suddenly people become very vocal. All of a sudden everybody starts emphasizing on the beauty of life and the futility of committing such 'irresponsible mistake.'  After all you are no orphan, you belong to a family which are well above the below poverty line--whatever your grievances are nothing but 'fancy stuffs', after all you should think about your parents, your siblings, your friend, colleagues, if possible, enemies , right?
Can anybody tell me why life is celebrated and death treated as something unexpected ? Is it because, 'till death there is hope'? Hope of what? Having a stable career, having a 'complete' family, or at times (in leisure and seminars, of course) dreaming of changing the world--these are what we really hope for? In reality, how many people mean or achieve them?Ironically,contrary to the theoretical assumptions, the reality is quite different.It is only the Darwinian model of struggle for existence that's applicable. Starting from birth you have to strive harder and harder to outdo the others in the race not to survive only but to excel at the same time, by hook or crook. Did anybody notice, how many deaths a person dies in order to 'live' such a life? But still we want to achieve them as  we are trained to believe that only such success can lead upto the making of a 'perfect life'. Life is only worth living only if these conditions are satisfied. Thus, the  social-psychological parameter is set and the rat-race is on.
Death is only a logical conclusion to a process which is already going on in the name of 'life'. As opposed to death I feel life is something that  is weird and unknown. In fact, I doubt whether life has an identity of its own because its only what death is not,( which is at least definite and inevitable). So, instead of saying that death is an end to life, its better to see life as the beginning of death.