Surrounded by family and friends

 

I hear this in death announcements and it give me a shiver. I know everyone has their own ideas for death and dying but having a selfies while someone is dying seems creepy to me.

I’ve heard of family gathering around the dying and saying prayers and singing as if this person who is about to breath their last breathe will want you there. If this process has been agreed to before, then it is a family tradition and the person will just have to lie there and take it, because it is too late to fight it. The last thing I would want is to hear off-key harmonies before I pass over.

Each of us will have to deal with death, others and our own. It is said we are the only creatures who is aware of our own demise. There are a variety of methods and procedures for death. You can die at home. You can die in a hospital. You can die anywhere.

It seems we are fascinated about death. We rubberneck at auto accidents to see if there are any bodies that haven’t been covered in a tarp. We watch movies that show dismemberment and vile forms of carcass manufacturing by monsters or angry people. We rerun history with pictures of war where the purpose is to destroy other people in the foulest manner.

I do not understand our fascination of being next to another person who is dying? In the movies the extended death scene holds our attention and brings emotional tears. Is this what we are taught? We don’t seem to have the same interest in your steak or fried chicken before it made your dinner plate?

Like a hospital, that will keep you living as long as possible with gizmos and liquids pumped into our almost rigor mortis shells for that is how they make their money, there is the folks who prepare us for review before dumping us into the ground. They make their money, pumping us up and dressing us in our Sunday finest and place us in a box so family and friends can see our corpse up close and personal. Check the pockets for a forgotten lottery ticket.

If we are so depraved at leaving the loved one, why not go to the taxidermist and have them stuffed like your last hunt?

You can have a remembrance portrait painted before you go to the great beyond but please no flat line selfies.