I would rather be alive than dead. Being dead cannot be much fun because it's like being in a very deep sleep forever and ever. You never wake up. However, being dead would have its advantages. There would be no money worries and you wouldn't have to visit the supermarket every week or yell down the phone at annoying scammers claiming to be from an awful communications company called TalkTalk. Death would also be an effective solution to unbearable physical pain.
Several people who have meant a lot to me are now dead. They include all my grandparents, my mother, my father, my brother Paul and my American friend Richard. In addition, all my pet cats are dead - Oscar, Blizzard and Boris and all the white mice I bred between the ages of twelve and thirteen. No matter how much I plead for them to get in touch again they all remain dead as doorposts and do not utter a single word, miaow or squeak. That's death for you.
There are many different ways to die. You could die fighting against the forces of evil - such as The Islamic State or TalkTalk. You could die mysteriously while watching a film on a jumbo jet or by falling from Mount Everest. However, I would prefer to die like my brother Paul did - in the middle of the night whilst fast asleep.
You are probably wondering why today's blogpost is so morbid. I mean - shhhhh! - nobody wants to think about death with their laptop coffees do they?
Well, to explain - yesterday, when walking in the western fringes of this northern city, I came across a dead lamb. It was a healthy size and had no visible injuries. She was lying in the corner of a field next to an old bath that now acts as a water trough.
Her body was still floppy - suggesting she had died yesterday morning. The last few days have been warm and sunny but not so scorchingly hot that the lamb could have possibly had heatstroke. The old bath is near a public footpath so it is very possible that the lamb died in a panic while being worried by an unleashed dog. In 2017 it is estimated that 15,000 British sheep and lambs were effectively killed by loose dogs.
Farewell sweet lambkin.
The poor little thing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's an Australian thing or because I live in the suburbs but I wouldn't dream of walking a dog off lead except in a designated dog park.
15 000 is a lot of lives and money lost
Many English rights of way cut across farmland. I guess that in Australia this is not the case so dog walkers would not often come into direct contact with sheep and lambs. However, I understand that Queensland sheep farmers have many problems with wild dogs.
DeleteA neighbor's dog got into my yard once and slaughtered many of my chickens in a merry romp of blood and death. NOT a good way to die, I would think.
ReplyDeleteI like to think I am not afraid of death but I probably am, being human. I know, however, that I am afraid of pain and of suffering. And being unable to take care of myself.
What a horrible memory - to discover your chickens like that. Regarding the proximity of our own deaths, perhaps it is best just to soldier on and hope for the best.
DeleteAt our age death is very real and close, especially for Tom. We have lots of discussions about this as we are not frightened by it, in fact sometimes when the body is tired and life is difficult it is something that could almost be welcomed. Don't be alarmed we are not depressed or fed up with life, just realistic.
ReplyDeleteOf course we have lost more people than we can count on both hands and yet it still remains a mystery, something that cannot be figured out.
Briony
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Sounds like you and Tom have a healthy attitude to Death. Not cowering from it but bravely facing up to it with your heads held high.
DeletePlants die, ants die, lions and elephants die. Human beings die. We have come to learn, through science, that some mammals such as monkeys, elephants, dolphins are very emotional beings. They must morn the loss of loved ones like we do. That is sad.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we underestimate many of the other creatures that inhabit this planet. No doubt elephants could teach us a lot about dealing with Death.
DeleteYP, you seem to know a lot about death even though you haven’t been dead yourself. Can you guess where i’m going with this? Perhaps you can pick next week’s lottery numbers for me? You seem to know everything else. Nobody has ever died and come back to say how bad it is. We don’t know if it is.
ReplyDeleteThe winning lottery numbers are on my own lottery slip Terry and I am not sharing them with anybody else because that would reduce the size of my jackpot win.
DeleteI love life too much right now to spend much time thinking about death. I don't fear what comes after, because I don't think anything comes after, but as Ms. Moon said, I fear pain and suffering and being unable to care for myself. Not a nice thought on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteDealing with the recent loss of my mother in law has been rough. Since she lived a couple of hours away, and we didn't see her all that often, so it still seems impossible to me that she's actually gone. :(
"I don't think anything comes after"... Regarding death we are very much on same wavelength Jennifer. If people wish to experience heaven they need to make it here in the land of the living because they will not get another opportunity.
DeleteWhen I was going through chemotherapy I was very scared of dying. A nurse said to me "you say you love gardening don't you? Well if death is coming for you let him find you planting seeds for next year"
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while but I'm getting there!
I am pleased to deduce that you got through to the other side of the chemotherapy Christina. Well done! Death can return to his box for a few more years. And stay there!
DeleteHow very sad to see that dear lamb. Death is a hard thing and much worse when it is death that could be prevented. I grew up the youngest in my family and the youngest of my Grandmother's grandchildren. I did not realize as a child that because I was the youngest I would live to see most of those I love die. I have seen all my grandparents, parents, in-laws, all of my aunts and uncles, most of my cousins and one of my two brothers die. It is difficult but we must carry on for them and for our children and grandchildren. Death is part of life I am afraid. But we don't have to like it.
ReplyDelete"Death is part of life" - I wish that more people could truly understand that simple truth.
DeleteI believe that we must give a flower to the people we love while they're still alive rather than taking flowers to their grave. I believe we should hug and kiss our loved ones and tell them we love them and, do it as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteI have dead people visit me in my dreams and that happened often while I was going through chemotherapy but, I like you, I don't think anything comes after. I'm not afraid of death but I'm afraid pain and sufference.
Greetings Maria x
I didn't know that you like Christina in Blackburn, England had been through chemotherapy Maria. I am so pleased that you came out the other side. And I love your notion of giving flowers to the living - rather than the dead.
DeleteMy hair is growing back again. Not yet on the other side but, I'm determined to see my son grow old. Thank you Neil.
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Maybe not entirely out of the woods but almost there Maria. Stay strong!
DeleteYes , this was a morbid post. However it's a post that should be taken seriously so that we are ready to accept our own end.
ReplyDeleteWe must be brave and we must be realistic. None of us will last forever.
DeleteWell...this certainly has started off my Monday in a direction I'd not wished it would go.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll watch a couple of episodes of "Cheers" and "Frasier" to lift my mood.
Pictures of dead animals certainly aren't the way to do it for me,particularly as I'm still trying to the image of this story I heard about yesterday out of my mind.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/six-alpacas-shot-dead-in-heartless-southern-queensland-attack-20180506-p4zdot.html
Glad to be of service Mistress Lee. Horrible news link. Was the shooter human?
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DeleteI'm afraid I can see no humour in my comment, Yorkie, and am a little perplexed by your response.
DeleteNo...as far as I am concerned the shooter/s is/are not human.
I hope the low-life scum who did this senseless, heartless cruelty...pointless cruelty...get what they deserve ten-fold and more. There are some useless wastes of space on this earth who dare call themselves "humans". They are not. They are not animals, either. They are a scourge on society...they are the ones who should be put down....and I give no apology for saying so!
I found dark humour in your first two sentences but of course NOT in the link. Sorry for any misunderstanding Lee.
DeleteDeath is a part of life - its final one, and that is how I see it. Steve's completely unexpected death nearly 9 years ago taught me alot about life and death. I am always saddened by the sight of a dead animal by the roadside, and when animals died in a book I read as a child, it made me cry much more than when a person died.
ReplyDeleteFriends and family members have died during the 50 years I have been around now, and will continue to do so. Eventually, it will be my turn. I don't fear it, but I can not really imagine it, either.
Thank you for your thoughtful reflections Meike.
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