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| Choice | 21% | 350 votes | Total: 1685 votes | |
| Fate | 79% | 1335 votes |
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Add to FavoritesAs we choose the quality and possibilities that we allow in our lives, so do we choose the quality and even the possibility of our death. That death is a guaranteed end to the process of entropy that we are all born into makes it no more a fate than the ability to live. After all, we are all born with the capacity to live but so few of us learn how. In our modern world, the struggle is to decide whether or not you will choose death and all it implies, or pass from this life in ignorance of what may be our finest moment much the same way that people choose to live out their lives as if they were not here at all.
The body and the soul have become separated in our minds. As we have developed as industrialized nations, the separation has become a necessity to allow for the development of "disposable" lives. In which our existence is not for the perfection and fulfillment of our selves, but a means to an end for someone else. If body and soul are separate, then we may always believe that the next thing, the other thing will be that which gives us meaning and validity. It leaves open the justification for remaining in patterns in which we exist without value. It leaves us waiting for life to begin.
Modernity demands that we do not choose death and cling to the assumption that, in all things, there is something outside of us that will change the course of nature. It demands that till the last breath, we need to believe that we will rebound and go on living. It presents Death as a battle to be overcome, a sickness to be cured and in doing so, negates the process of nature. Death as the enemy, takes with it the ability to live life to its fullest because underneath the desire to live lies fear.
What we are inside, emotionally, mentally, physically affects the health and longevity of our physical bodies. Industrialization and commercialization, when it participates in this belief, would have us think that the influential connection originates in the physical. The stream of product designed to elevate and perfect our bodies with the promise that it will change our inner lives, is endless. We are barraged with messages that the body comes first. The body is the biological vessel that carries our soul. It is, as any quadriplegic will tell you, a luxury but not a necessity to living a full life.
The soul, the inner existence that we are all born with, is what provides us with meaning. It expresses itself as a sense of self-esteem, self-worth, a feeling of potential and the capacity for achievement. The soul developed acknowledges the temporary nature of life, that all things come to pass and come to an end, including ourselves. Yet, in doing so, this passage is a part of an infinite process of life. The soul developed strives, as in all things, to bring to this moment a sense of perfection and placement. We are, at the end, the sum total of all we have lived and believed.
We have the capacity within us to choose to "live our deaths", to be knowledgeable and to greet the natural passing of life with a sense of wonder and a feeling of completion. Death becomes, by choice, a part of living. To live with a knowledge of your own death is to live with a sense that what you do, who you are, what you seek is important. Important because forever does not exist and your life is a fragile part of a cycle, fragile but necessary and with purpose, whether or not we come to an understanding of that purpose. To live in ignorance or denial of death is to have welcomed it long before it has become the inevitable end to the cycle of life. Fear always interrupts life.
Learn more about this author, Cassandra Tribe.
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Fate
Everything dies in one way or another. Each moment that passes means the one before has died. We have lived that moment to see the birth of a new time. Each thought, feeling, smile, even a tear must have a beginning and an end. Every word I write or speak has a beginning and an end. There is an end, a death, to nearly everything though we may not always see it or believe that to be possible. This must happen that we may begin again, be replenished, and continue to exist.
A scientist may say that we are one big mass of energy and that everything that exists is also a mass of energy. The scientist may also say that energy just exists and that it can not be created or die. I am by no means a scientist but I can tell you that science says that we can evolve. Evolution also involves death. This death takes place in the form of change. Another word for change is transformation, a death from the old form and a birth of the new.
Spring replaces winter, summer comes from spring, then summer gives way to autumn, and autumn dies to winter. Death is just another word for the end. It is the way our body replenishes itself and the way that all life turns. In spring the trees give birth as natural as can be, in summer the trees become lush and full. By late autumn the trees are prepared to shed their aged leaves to give the chance for the next birth. The leaves turn to bright colors and as winter approaches those colors fade and die leaving the indication that their time has passed.
Our bodies are no different than those trees. We produce millions of cells inside our bodies that die and then naturally reproduce. Our skin for example dies each year and is replaced completely by new skin cells. Women have natural cycles that cleanse their bodies and give them the opportunity to bring forth life. Men have cycles that give them the opportunity to create life. These cycles are renewed constantly without any effort on the part of the man or the woman.
The growth cycle is another way we constantly die and are reborn. We die to ignorance and are born to the knowledge of speaking, walking, teaching, and living. Our bodies grow to fit our ever changing life. Leaving our small self behind and bringing forth a more mature image of what we once were. As that maturity continues our childhood fades and our adult life begins. The child in us has been laid to rest so as to make room for the adult we are to become.
Death is a natural occurrence in everything in life. Even our thoughts can die. What we may believe in one moment can die with new knowledge. Therefore, death must be fate.
We can be born again in a new religion but first we must die to our old ways. We can be freed from addiction but first we must put to death the old lifestyle.
Even when one attempts suicide there is no guarantee that death will be the physical result. The person could end up paralyzed or in a coma yet living. The person could end up being hooked to machines or even continue on unharmed but still living. Until the time has come that the body can no longer survive it lives.
Death is a natural part of everything from day and night to the favorite pair of jeans that just can't survive another washing or wearing. It is a fact that we die to ourselves and are reborn with each new step we take. This is why the idea of death should not bring sadness, for just as we die, we may live again in a whole new realm of life.
We are creatures of a life plan that is beyond all measure. Though it may seem that our final fate is death it is only part of fate, because rebirth is just as much a part of that fate. Life is a continuous cycle, never ending. We will have life again, whether in heaven, the summer land, through reincarnation, or even hell. Our lives will begin again.
Just as the plants, animals, and earth go through cycles, so we do as humans. These cycles are all aligned with the natural forces of the universe and in each moment our world is recreated and with that recreation there is death of the old. Death is a part of life as much as living is and that is why I believe that death is fate, not a choice.
Learn more about this author, Lolita Townsend.
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