The way I think of death is like when having to have an injection of something or another, you don't think to yourself coo, woopie I'm about to have an injection nor do you particularly fear having it.
If I could have a choice I'd like to go to bed one night and wake up the next morning and find myself dead, it has to happen some time to all of us so going to bed and not waking up the next morning would be a good option.
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Many people say that, but I do wonder. Not knowing that you're going to die spares you certain things, but some people feel that you miss out on other stuff. Christopher Hitchens, who as is well known had oesophageal cancer and certainly knew he was going to die months in advance, said that he wanted to die in the active sense - by that I guess he meant preparing and planning as far as possible since he was a husband and father and had a literary estate to wind up. A sudden death may sound attractive in prospect from the point of view of the deceased, but can be a double nightmare for those left behind who have to tidy up the remnants of a life. I know whereof I speak: my dad died back in February (not especially suddenly) and although he had about the simplest life imaginable, five months on I'm still tying up loose ends and finding stray little things that need to be done.
Many people think that being aware of your own impending death must be about the worst thing imaginable, but I'm not so sure. It allows for a certain amount of control, I suppose - not over the death itself, which is inescapable for us all, but for other things. It also allows - if you're lucky at any rate - for you to come to terms with your life, say your goodbyes (in some cases settle scores, no doubt) and wind up your affairs, none of which are possible if you sleep your life away one night. Montaigne (I think) was right when he said that death should find us in harness (i.e. still active with our plans and projects and doings), but the ancients thought that there was such a thing as the
ars moriendi, the art of dying, which we have pretty well comprehensively lost.