Death

Psychedelic Casual said:
That’s mostly because people never do a moment’s exercise again for the rest of their life after turning 30 (some from the day of their last PE lesson at school!).

Humans are idiots, why they don’t look after themselves throughout life to the point they can’t look after themselves in old age is ridiculous.

My Grandad didn’t retire from his job as a removals man until he was 75, and is still going strong at 85.

Fauja Singh was still doing marathons after he turned 100

asiana.tv

The world’s oldest marathon runner breaks another record - Asiana.tv

Sikh Superhero Fauja Singh immortalised in children’s book
asiana.tv asiana.tv

I know lads in their 20s who’d barely able to run for a bus.
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Very true mate.
There's so many overweight people in their fifties and sixties, they're so unfit they can hardly bend down.
 
MellowJoe said:
Has Alan Watts got a video for people that fear death, not for themselves primarily, but because they worry about their family? And how they'll cope?
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He has many lectures about death and acceptance of it , and about life.
This is a short one explaining basically why we have to die


I dont know any particular video where he talks about how the people that love you can deal with your death but if they were to listen to his lectures, and unserstand , it would be easier for them to accept it.

Alan says life is just a show , and you are the main character, you should let go of your worries and anxiety and just play the game of life, as there is nothing to win and nothing to lose , it's all just an experience and you should enjoy it until the end. Thats the purpose of it.



Do you have an illness or suicidal thoughts ? I am asking because of your question.
If you need someone to talk to , you can message me. I'll be glad to listen and help if I can.
 
Nihilist said:
He has many lectures about death and acceptance of it , and about life.
This is a short one explaining basically why we have to die


I dont know any particular video where he talks about how the people that love you can deal with your death but if they were to listen to his lectures, and unserstand , it would be easier for them to accept it.

Alan says life is just a show , and you are the main character, you should let go of your worries and anxiety and just play the game of life, as there is nothing to win and nothing to lose , it's all just an experience and you should enjoy it until the end. Thats the purpose of it.



Do you have an illness or suicidal thoughts ? I am asking because of your question.
If you need someone to talk to , you can message me. I'll be glad to listen and help if I can.
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Oh yeah I'll divulge my inner most thoughts to a guy called 'Nihilist' :)
Seriously though, it's not something I've heard people talk about.. we can pretend life is a dance and all that and we shouldn't pity our loved ones ever, even when we die because.. well, we can't help dying, and soon enough it's gonna be our daughters and sons turn and that's the circle.. someone said 'the thing I fear more than death is life' kind of makes sense
 

Aubade​

BY PHILIP LARKIN
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.
The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
—The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused—nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can’t escape,
Yet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.



One of my favourite poems and it has always haunted me. The phrase 'nothing to think with, nothing to love or link with' has haunted me for many years.
 
Nascent Blues said:

Aubade​

BY PHILIP LARKIN
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.
The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
—The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused—nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can’t escape,
Yet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.



One of my favourite poems and it has always haunted me. The phrase 'nothing to think with, nothing to love or link with' has haunted me for many years.
Click to expand...

The Dash​

the poem by Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning… to the end.
He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own, the cars… the house… the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.
To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile… remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.
So when your eulogy is being read, with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?
 
Hamann Pineapple said:

The Dash​

the poem by Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning… to the end.
He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own, the cars… the house… the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.
To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile… remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.
So when your eulogy is being read, with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?
Click to expand...
Long Distance II by Tony Harrison

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.



If I was to summarise this poem I would say it's 'grief distilled'. This poem staggers me.
 
It does scare me a lot just because it's so final.

I think about when I am in my 80s I will be going to bed each night wondering if I will wake up the next day. Then when I do wake up I will have to have a good look around to make sure I'm still alive.
 
Whilst your all erring on the poetic I do think this one from Elizabeth Frye has legs.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

Elizabeth composed this poem in a moment of insriation scribbling it down on an old paper bag. It's said she wrote it to comfort a friendf who had just lost their mother and could not visit her grave. Apparantly this is the only surving poem and possibly her only one?

​

 
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