the Alternative to dying

The following is the Introduction and Chapter 1 of a work in progress as a written supplement to the audio recordings presented on this page. josh

the Alternative to dying

Introduction:

Death is a lie; a tall tale founded upon a wisp of an idea heard briefly long ago and exaggerated over time until its impact and its importance have become a convention, too established to be questioned, too severe in its consequences to be ignored. The convention dictates that death is certain, and the demand that it must come to each and all in the end is the small comfort we enjoy as we march hand in hand toward the after-life, uncertain but secure in our miserable company.

Indeed, it appears certain that all living things die. Hardly a day goes by without evidence of the inevitability of death. For some it appears as a distant cognition, delivered deadpan in a news broadcast: war casualties, innocent victims of a suicide bomber, children murdered by classmates, a plane crash, tsunami, train derailment, genocide. For others, it's more personal: a sister is diagnosed with cancer, a father contracts Alzheimer's, a brother dies in an auto accident. For the survivors, there is anger (a strangely inappropriate response once death's inevitability has been accepted), a profound sense of powerlessness, and the haunting certainty that they too will die in the end...

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