Life and Death

Sometimes I fear death, especially when I ride in a car with friends. I think to myself sometimes, “Don’t you appreciate life? I can’t die here, I have my whole life to live and I am entrusting it to you. You drive like a maniac, if I arrive alive it will be a miracle.” I’ve arrived alive every time, and yet still I don’t feel convinced. I feel scared and afraid. I feel afraid of death and I feel afraid of life by that very admission. Death is not the opposite of life, as Dr. Remen has said, death is a part of life. And thus the purpose of life isn’t escaping death or having some kind of eternal, never dying life. I think I agree with Dr. Remen in saying the single purpose in life is to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better. I have not yet experienced much death in my life, though I have thought about it a lot. I am young enough to let it get into my heart and into my mind enough to think about, and I am also young enough to begin to block it out. I think I have a lot to look forward to.