Rethinking Death: A Poetic Journey Through Time

by Roberta Ness

From Ancient Acceptance to Modern Defiance—How Our View of Mortality Has Evolved

So happy you dropped by again! Give me a minute to close out a couple of checks and then I can join you. Feel free to entertain yourself with all that Facebook and Linked-in and Tick Tock stuff you like to do while you wait. Okay – I’m back – and I’m armed with a surprising twist on our chat from last week about the existential fear of non-being. Remember I said that fear of death is innate?

Is it? Let’s see…

My journey began when the wife of my much-loved lifelong mentor called and told me he was in the hospital and it was not looking good, I took the first plane to his bedside. Racing to be with him was a reflex - like yanking a hand from a hot stove. Once there, I found myself alongside his wife and grown children who were drifting in and out, looking dazed, sometimes huddling in corners whispering. Suddenly, I felt super uncomfortable. I hadn’t stopped long enough to wonder if I’d be intruding on the immediate family’s private, sacred grieving space…