Shall We Hurry and Meet Death?

The Oxford Book of Death

by

D. J. Enright

     "Then both ourselves and seed at once to free

From what we fear both, let us make short,

Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply

With our own hands his office on ourselves;

Why stand we longer shivering under fears

That show no end but death, and have the power,

Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,

Destruction with destruction to destroy?" (86-86)

~ Milton (as cited in Enright)

              Would it not be easier than going through the suffering that life has in store for us, to nip it in the bud and deny life its cruel pleasures? What is the point of living if we have to suffer? Its is quite ponderous, this topic. There is not real ultimate answer that will satisfy everyone; however, I will comment with my own opinion on the reasons why we must endure life. To me, we all are given this thing called life, because we have a purpose to forfill that will affect perhaps just one or thousands of individuals. We may never discover what our true purpose is. It could be to smile at a person on the street, or it could be to save the life of a trauma victim. These two tasks are no less important than the other; for example, smiling at the stranger in the street might encourage them to write the book that they have been thinking about--- and only decades after that smile, will that book be complete and impact the entire world. Or perhaps your purpose could be completely different; you yourself are to be the orchestrator of major changes within a region--- but you only carried it out because someone smiled at you in the street.

"Just as a landlord who has not received his rent pulls down the doors,

removes the rafters, and fills up the well, so I seem to be driven out

of this little body, when nature, which has let it to me, take away

one by one, eyes and ears, hands and feet. I will not therefore delay

longer, but will cheerfully depart as from a banquet (88).

~Gaius Rufus Musonius (as cited in Enright)

           Life has the potential to try us to our very souls. In some cases, it places individuals in a situation where there truly seems to be, no hope and a it is only the attention of others, even strangers that can liberate them, as was the case of David Pelzer in the book A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer. In other cases, the individual builds their own trap and lures themselves into it, as can be witnessed in some extreme compulsive gambling cases. Personally, there are only one way to proceed; the individual must not lose hope, and the must employ every positive, none destructive method available to them to better the situation they are in. I know I am phrasing this poorly, but if you could see into my head you would understand it perfectly, where I stand with this topic. Hope is the key to surviving Life's tortures.