Reality Bites

Everyone will eventually die. This is a fact that we all learn sometime during childhood, before it is swept under the rug as something that only happens to old people ( which we all know is a crock) so why speak about it, accept it, plan for it, or even think about it? Consequently when it happens to someone we love we are shocked, angry and overcome with grief and sadness, despite its being a natural part of life. Oddly, the only deaths we applaud are those of unborn children on their journey to birth; that is seen as a great advancement of our culture. 

Instead we read about movie stars who are actually having their babies and politicians who are sexual predators or tax evaders, or all the people who were friends of Jeffrey Epstein, which is what the Internet loves most. Couldn't there be at least one teeny, weeny website devoted to How to Die, or The Truth About Dying, or Getting Ready for the Great Beyond, or something? 

Do we really have to read about 14-year-old "influencers" posting pictures of themselves online in bikinis, like that has any value to society at all? I mean, one iota of value, besides priming a new generation of sexual perverts and predators? 

I have no answers to this big, fat failure of ours. But there are books out there on the subject and I suggest everyone read one or two before it's their turn to pass away. Another source for reflection is cartoons, for which death is a great subject. Thank all the cartoonists out there who dare to broach this important topic.