Anonymous wrote:I think Death and the process of dying is shocking to Americans bc:

-Americans don’t respect death. It is a commodity. We sell and use guns. We have the NRA that worships guns that cause death, often of innocent people. Deaths are shown on the news every morning, day and night. Our tv shows and movies romanticize death. Death is nothing special until it happens to someone we personally know, then all of a sudden it’s real to us and we can’t handle the reality that a human life is really gone forever.

-Americans outsource everything, including aging parents. Our family structures are very nuclear and close extended families are not as much a thing anymore, so we are no longer involved in the daily processes of taking care of sick family members and aging elders, and helping them have a comfortable transition to death. They’re tucked away until they die, we visit a few times, then there’s the funeral.

-Americans are very selfish and self-centered. More communal cultures celebrate birth, life and death as a community. They ceremoniously and ritually remember and honor their dead loved ones and ancestors. They together embrace and take care of the sick and dying. Death is not a mystery to them, it is expected and part of the cycle of life. They respect death and the dead. Americans don’t do that. Our cemeteries are quiet forlorn places, often without visitors. We bury a loved one then go on about our business.

Anonymous wrote:This is why I’m turning to religion. I am a non practicing Muslim and am seeking out Sufism. I just cannot accept the fact that life is hard and that we are all destined to die. It sounds naive but I don’t know how to deal with it other than turning to faith.

I was shaken by Princess Kate’s diagnosis because she always seemed invincible to me. Someone with the perfect life: a loving and stable family of origin, the most prestigious family in the world as in laws, beautiful children, etc. I still cannot grapple with the fact that this shows how precarious life is, for this to happen to the most privileged of humans.

Anonymous wrote:Being shocked that we will die is what is the motivator for living. We each come with a little chip that informs us with the lie that we are invincible, immortal, and special. When that tears away it's too hard to comprehend, so we invent structures
and platitudes around it,like belief systems ( religion, or everything happens for a reason, rainbow bridge, it was his time) and sometimes death defies all that. We know it, but it's too hard to believe.

For me, it was a sobering moment watching a plain unmarked van carry my neighbor, who died in his sleep, out of our street on a drizzly afternoon. No one standing around with their dog or lawnmower even knew that was him, the van and loading was obligatory and unconventional like removing a chair. Life just moves on.
Make each day count.

Anonymous wrote:I think Death and the process of dying is shocking to Americans bc:

-Americans don’t respect death. It is a commodity. We sell and use guns. We have the NRA that worships guns that cause death, often of innocent people. Deaths are shown on the news every morning, day and night. Our tv shows and movies romanticize death. Death is nothing special until it happens to someone we personally know, then all of a sudden it’s real to us and we can’t handle the reality that a human life is really gone forever.

-Americans outsource everything, including aging parents. Our family structures are very nuclear and close extended families are not as much a thing anymore, so we are no longer involved in the daily processes of taking care of sick family members and aging elders, and helping them have a comfortable transition to death. They’re tucked away until they die, we visit a few times, then there’s the funeral.

-Americans are very selfish and self-centered. More communal cultures celebrate birth, life and death as a community. They ceremoniously and ritually remember and honor their dead loved ones and ancestors. They together embrace and take care of the sick and dying. Death is not a mystery to them, it is expected and part of the cycle of life. They respect death and the dead. Americans don’t do that. Our cemeteries are quiet forlorn places, often without visitors. We bury a loved one then go on about our business.

Anonymous wrote:I think Death and the process of dying is shocking to Americans bc:

-Americans don’t respect death. It is a commodity. We sell and use guns. We have the NRA that worships guns that cause death, often of innocent people. Deaths are shown on the news every morning, day and night. Our tv shows and movies romanticize death. Death is nothing special until it happens to someone we personally know, then all of a sudden it’s real to us and we can’t handle the reality that a human life is really gone forever.

-Americans outsource everything, including aging parents. Our family structures are very nuclear and close extended families are not as much a thing anymore, so we are no longer involved in the daily processes of taking care of sick family members and aging elders, and helping them have a comfortable transition to death. They’re tucked away until they die, we visit a few times, then there’s the funeral.

-Americans are very selfish and self-centered. More communal cultures celebrate birth, life and death as a community. They ceremoniously and ritually remember and honor their dead loved ones and ancestors. They together embrace and take care of the sick and dying. Death is not a mystery to them, it is expected and part of the cycle of life. They respect death and the dead. Americans don’t do that. Our cemeteries are quiet forlorn places, often without visitors. We bury a loved one then go on about our business.