Humanity’s attempts to avoid death is a denial of the natural order
By Lethbridge Herald on August 12, 2023.
Editor:
I am working on a paper for the event that is being planned titled “WAKING DEATH” from Sept. 9 to Oct. 28 at Casa, Galt Museum, SAAG, and at the University of Lethbridge.
Hopefully I will get helpful comments from the readers.
To deny the inevitable is delusional. I must admit that I had lived in the delusion by avoiding the subject of my demise. At the age of 92, I have to face the tasks of preparing for the next stage of my journey. They are things like writing the will for example. One thing I have done is to register my body in the Body Donation Program of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
I was inspired by the poem of gratitude my granddaughter Hana wrote to the donor before her first anatomy class. Now I am a registered body donor. I carry a card with the driver’s licence to show where the empty shell of mine should be delivered.
I cannot speak for others but I suspect the majority of people would hesitate handing over one’s naked body to a total stranger.
Why is that, I wonder. Is it embarrassing? Where does it come from? It does not make sense.
My reason agrees with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view of nature. After the creation, God said, “That’s good.” My body is complete and perfect and there is nothing I should be ashamed of. Having belonged to an artists group for some years and done figure drawing, I know that every person is beautiful and complete but with a difference.
Furthermore, in the anatomy class the cadaver is quite dead. One’s brain no longer functions hence no self-consciousness. One does not exist as far as one is concerned. The lifeless body is an empty shell. There is no reason for pride nor shame.
The Hebrew sage reminded us that when humans reject the primordial natural order, they have acquired self-consciousness and become aware of their image.
When they saw their true reality without cover-up after eating the forbidden fruit, they saw their uncovered bodies and didn’t like what they saw.
They were ashamed of themselves. Why? They felt their appearance was unacceptable.
It seemed to be a cheap imitation of what it should be. It’s the same with the reaction to the reality of death. We denied death as the sign of rejection, as the punishment even though it is natural, normal, real, and unavoidable. They felt they had to deny the undeniable and hide it.
What do you call the denial of fact? Delusion. Self-consciousness led humans to delusional fantasies. It led humans to acquire the fear of death, though they know it is a natural unavoidable reality and is an integral aspect of life. There is no death, there is no life.
Death is the process in the nature of things. Fear of death is the denial of reality and the rejection of truth.
The arrogant ego which became aware of one’s existence as an individual cannot accept its termination and its non- existence.
The futile attempt to avoid death at all cost is quixotic denial of the natural order. Hubris makes us delusional.
Samurai of yesteryears believed that the purpose of life is to find a good death.
Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui
Lethbridge
21-20
Mr Mitsui I hope someday a mind like yours can be part of a donation upon death, unless the spirit needs to keep it for wherever it goes after the body dies.
another beautiful entry – thank you.
From the time we’re born we are avoiding death that is different from denying death. Almost everything we have and think in modern society is out of a desire to avoid death. Shelter, agriculture, engineering and medical breakthroughs are all out of avoiding death. After all you don’t cross a busy highway without that thought in your mind. Accepting death is different from the person experiencing it to the loved ones not wanting the inevitable. I’ve lost both my father and stepfather to cancer now and have seen them go through the stages from fighting to accepting their fate, myself as well.