Death and dying

"Death brings unwanted emotions: fear, loneliness and a finality. Death tests our faith. We can't hide from it. Its reality hits hard."

- Mike Schmidt, 4/18/2009

Lately, we're hearing sentiment that has Harry Kalas and his best friend, the late Rich Ashburn somehow reunited in Heaven. Occasionally, people will make up dialogue that the two would be saying as they greeted each other. There was an entire half-page of today's Inquirer sports section devoted to just that. Some would call it a waste of space and others would call it comforting. It might be both.

The premise that Harry and Richie are in Heaven is based on the idea that they led good lives and that we all loved them. What is missing is the religious concept of who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell. We forget that when someone dies but constantly remind them while they are alive.

We look upward when we talk about Heaven and down when we talk about Hell. Those are the cliché responses and we accept them as truth. When someone dies, they are said to be "looking down on us" or "watching over us," as though they're up there - somewhere - floating in the spirit world. It's a uniquely human trait, and I suppose it's because we don't want to be confronted by the fact that someone has left us or that they've gone to Hell. I'm guilty of often wondering if my father is watching me and if he's proud of me - sometimes - or shaking his head and wondering, "Where did you ever learn to behave like that?"

The realist in me figures that I'm being silly because I'm not sure that anyone looks down on us or judges us from beyond. It doesn't make sense. I think it's religion that puts those thoughts in our heads. A lifetime of bad upbringing or superstition - one of the two, I guess.

Suppose we just die and ... well, nothing? That idea is as difficult to comprehend as infinite space, but it's a real possibility. Nobody wants to think that when we die we're finished as a soul or some sort of living being, but it could happen. Nothing in eternity is as real a possibility as some fabricated after-life. To say that you know is only an act of faith. All of those made-up conversations and fabricated stories of dead people watching our lives are for our benefit. It makes us feel better if we think that there is something waiting for us when we're through here.

The chances are just as good that there isn't, however.

OK, enough of that. Here's a photo to get our feet back on solid ground.

Thanks Jana, I feel better now.