Death is not the end.

Oddly enough, I’ve never died. Never been dead.

Never wanted to be dead. Never died and come back to life. Never seen a dead body. Never seen someone die.

There are times where I thought I was dead. There are times when I have come close and survived.

Why do we find the topic so hard to explore?

—

Ever since I read about a service where you can get your ashes pressed into a vinyl record and immediately thought, ‘I want that!’, I’ve realised that most people shy away from death.

Death is not a topic of conversation unless it has to be. To most people, we don’t discuss death or even think about it, until it is imminent.

But if we want to prolong our lives, why, then, is it so difficult to let go of wasting time?

We waste time all the time. We use our hours up with social media, mostly. We smoke, we drink tea, we watch TV, we do pointless things that don’t enrich our lives. Even when we have a close shave with death, or someone near to us dies, it usually only causes a temporary change. We try to live in the present, break the cycle, do something different or strive for spontaneity. We eventually return to our usual routine.

Do those who live life on the edge know something we don’t? Perhaps we are too caught up in prolonging life, that our fear of death grows bigger and more significant. Those people who take unnecessary risks seem to enjoy themselves. They climb without safety equipment, they don’t calorie count, they take an unsafe amount of drugs, they ignore advice, they don’t stress about what could go wrong.

It seems to me, they are at peace with the importance of experiencing life before it is taken away without choice. Is life too short or is life the longest thing you will ever experience?

As with most things, it all comes down to perspective.