Good Morning! Who died?

  Every morning I am awaken to the news of some disaster or war or murder or catastrophe with ‘at least’ so many dead. What a way to start the day.

  This morning two deputies were assassinated in Florida and the alleged guy who pull the trigger committed suicide rather than answer the question ‘why?’ There is a shooting at a 7-11 and the victim is ‘fighting for his life’ with much medical attention. Another shooting and a few overturned trucks and cars and maybe a plane crash and I haven’t had my first cup of coffee yet.

  We (the global collective) seem to have a fascination with death (and the dying). Got has it’s Satan to balance the Yin / Yang of it, but the devil might be winning.

  Any ‘news’ story today seems to be where, when and how many dead.

  Death - particularly the death of humans (or dogs) - has commonly been considered a sad and unpleasant occasion, due to the affection for the being that has died and the termination of social and familial bonds with the deceased. Other concerns include fear of death, necrophobia, anxiety, sorrow, grief, emotional pain, depression, sympathy, compassion, solitude, or saudade.

  Many cultures have religions to explain the idea of an afterlife, and also hold the idea of reward for those who are good or a judgment or punishment for past sins.

  What is our fascination with this depressing curiosity?

  Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena, which commonly bring about death, include aging, predation, malnutrition, disease, suicide, homicide, starvation, dehydration, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury. In most cases, bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death.

  Yet every morning, there is story after story of the death and dying that continues to grab our attention and fascination. All our wars are not measured by the number of men and women who fought for some ideal our government made up but by the body count. If rubbernecking at the roadside carnage isn’t good enough for us, we have the entertainment industry presenting us gruesome gross and gory methods of destroying our fellow planet occupants.

  There seems to be about 1 birth every 7 seconds (avg.) in the USA as oppose to 11 deaths. At that average, not sure we can keep up.

There are industries from faith to transport to disposal and every day there is a list of obituaries but not birth announcements. Do we have our priorities mixed up? At the water cooler we can sum up opinions of the deceased before discussing the latest episode of ‘The Walking Dead’. We may hope the inevitable will not touch us while practice drill of ‘shelter in place’.

  Today as children plead for their parents to take responsibility for the escalating violence and manufacture of more powerful and deadly tools of destruction, but when the cameras go away, was anyone listening? Is the addiction to death more powerful than family?

Stay tuned. We’ll be back tomorrow with another list of those who have passed.