death

Initially we feared death because we didn’t know what it was. All we knew is the individual left us. Not their bodies, or their memories, but their personalities, abolished absolutely.
It’s an enigma unique to the consciousness. In physical reality we never see the end of something, we have never witnessed obliteration, merely chemical processes enabling transformation. But in our human delusions, nothing so fatally voids like that of the human experience.
Science has helped us understand death. It has not helped us cope with it, and we resent it for this fact.
We fear death because we know what it is. The end. Merely nothingness. The most offensive concoction of our consciousness in its utter demise.Few can look into that abyss and not go mad. Few. I count myself among them. As someone who refuses to compromise on the Truth, this leads me to flail for some silver lining. Here is what I have grasped for:
Death is release and can only become acceptable in such light. Death is the failsafe when misery and suffering becomes too much for the human experience to endure. In that we see that there is no pain that we cannot bear, for we should stop functioning should we ever encounter it. In world full of people hurting, it’s a comfort, despite being cold and empty, that there will come a time when they will hurt no more.
As a friend recently put it – ‘I’m okay with not existing forever. Why is that such a problem?’Understand what death really means. The end of you. Is that a problem?

My Vote

I live and partake in democracy. I have a vote that decides who will run my country. I have a responsibility to lodge that vote.But can we take this further: I have a responsibility to be informed. I have a responsibility to understand the consequences of my vote. I have a responsibility to defer to people who know better than me who also act in the interest of my country. I have a responsibility to admit that my vote will never be entirely informed and educated. I have a responsibility to strive to vote in a way that is responsible. I have a responsibility to ensure others handle their vote with the same respect and concern that I afford my own.

When I fail these responsibilities, I am failing democracy and my country.