Till the time the bones are strong, skin is shining & the spirits are high, we feel "What a Wonderful World", however as we near the finish line, concepts like "Body and Soul" start looking more relevant.
The larger point of debate is, is it ok to look forward to Death and Dying? Is Death not the final escape from a painful life or the end of our miseries in life?
Generally anyone who sees Death as the final way out is seen as a depressed individual, whereas people who keep struggling & keep dying everyday only to live a miserable life day in & day out are seen as fighters. To be honest, I don't know which school of thought is right.
Accepting Death as the final chapter of a book & the new chapter of volume 2 can be a defining factor in our outlook towards how to live life, yet most of us are scared to even look at the table of contents of life, leave alone the conclusion & bibliography.
Dying is like Jazz, or rather we have only one option, that is; Jive (dance) on the music, because eventually the symphony will stop & the orchestra will stop playing. Irrespective of the type of music, we all have to dance to the tunes of life.
The process of Death and Dying is no different than a Foxtrot dance, the steps keep moving in a "slow-slow-quick-quick" rhythm & finally the dancers fade away with the "Sound of Music". Death, name, fame also fades away with the musical notes and disappear with the mist. At the end of the day, most of us will not be in the history books except for the birth & death certificate.
We all have a story, but unfortunately many of us lack the background music to make it emotional, sentimental and a block buster. No wonder we relate to movies so much, the same is the concept with Death and Dying. The moment we put in the background music, Death looks like a movie, otherwise it is a documentary.
Death is a celebration for people who think Dying is a solution to living, otherwise Death is seen as a fear. Death is not for the faint hearted, because it takes courage to face Death.
Life in general is governed by the fear of dying and happiness in being alive. Till the time happiness is there, most of us do not think about Death, but the moment life throws a bouncer at us, we start blaming Life.
To conclude, Death is the same energy as being Born, it's just that how we prepare ourselves to cross over to the new dimension, we can either fear Death or go Jiving to the crematorium.
Pankaj Mehrotra