It also seems that people are equally uptight about both of them. On the tax front I still keep trying to get SARS on the same page as I am via e-mail, and no joy. On the death front, I find that people tend to react very differently to it than I do.
To put that statement into perspective, let me explain the circumstances.
My dad has had a recent brush with death, having five arteries bypassed in open heart surgery, and then, just as the news came that he was allowed to go home to recover, the news came that one of my cousins died in a motorcycle accident.
In the first I have had to listen to my family bewailing the possibility of my dad's death, and how wonderful it was that they got it in time and 'saved' his life. In the second, all of the family that are in touch with me are doing a lot of 'oh if only he had' kind of stuff.
Of course there is sadness when a person who was in your life is no longer there, I'm not denying that, but the reaction that death can be avoided, can be put off, can, in fact, not happen at all if you only take certain steps is what gets me. Death comes. Maybe today it is coming for you, maybe tomorrow it will come for me, but it is coming.
The way to live is not to keep thinking about it, but to acknowledge this reality, and then to live today as if you know for sure that it will be there tomorrow. Live fully, live in joy, live with abandon, and so that you can say when death does come, that you have no regrets.
And as for those who die before you - celebrate their life and what they meant to you, what memories they gave to you while you were alive and how they changed you.
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