We feel guilty when someone dies because…
Well, because we struggle with a deep sense of survivor guilt…the heart-wrenching acknowledgement that… “It should have been me.”
Right…?
WRONG!
We feel guilty because what we are really too ashamed to admit is, “Thank God, it wasn’t me!” That thought loudly resonates throughout the fiber of our being like a plucked guitar string. That thought endlessly reverberates across the collective consciousness of humanity.
An admission like that, true as it might be, just ain’t pretty by societal standards, no matter how you slice it. So we stuff that dirty little secret into a teensy-weensy, plain-papered box so as not to draw any attention to it. Then we compartmentalize and ship it off to some far away land in a darkened corner of our unconscious…tucked away behind some imposing, sterile, steel industrial sized door, from which nothing can escape…
At least that’s what we delude ourselves into thinking.
Many of us live our lives beneath the reach of our own radar, sleep-walking through each waking moment of our existence. We sometimes stumble upon moments of crystal clear consciousness, not really knowing what to do with or about them, thus we retreat into our less mindful self-indulgent personas content with the safety and comfort that ignorant bliss delivers. Like happy idiots we drift downstream softly propelled by the undercurrent of massive denial, oblivious to impending doom…death…the ultimate cataclysm.
Death personifies that absolute lack of control that each and every one of us truly has…that we have so much difficulty coming to terms with. We do our damndest to defend ourselves against that stark realization…against abject fear the vice-grip that so immobilizes us during our weakest moments.
James Kirk may have popularized the notion, “Space, the final frontier”, but he was dead (pun intended) wrong.
Death is the real final frontier, the place to which everyone gets a free ticket whether or not they want the admission. The irony is deathening.
So, we feel guilty when someone dies not because we are saintly, but to whitewash what would otherwise expose us as fearful self-absorbed, self-indulgent creatures...too afraid to recognize the darkness within, the acknowledgment and acceptance of which that would truly emblazon the pathway towards enlightenment.
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