Fading Flowers

(Note: The reader should feel free to replace all hes with shes, and hims with hers. Not that it will be particularly comforting, but there you have it if it helps bring more inclusive meaning.)

1. "Oh, you didn't know? He passed some time ago."

Passed? Like, what? Passed his exams? A kidney stone? The bus stop? The car in third place? His mentor? The moon? Gas?

He went from here to there -- that's what it sounds like. He went too far down the street but perhaps makes course corrections even now to return. He's just a door or two further down, making his way back. May we yet visit with him soon?

But, No. He died.

He didn't "passed" to anywhere. Well, except to the grave. Or crematorium. His heart stopped. His brain synapses collapsed. His breath returned to the atmosphere. His body rots. The four winds caught his scattered ashes. He is not.

What's with this euphemism thing, "passed"? Afraid to say "die"? Is the word "death" too crass? Too vulgar? Too common? Too final?

Ah, that's it, isn't it? Too ... too ... well, too dead.

2. "He's in a better place."

Oh, really? Says who? What makes it a better place? Who says it's a place at all?

Here's what the ancient Hebrews said about the realm of the dead:
Sheol. The Grave. The Pit. The Abyss. Death.

And, here's what most said about the state of the thing:
-No rising to praise God
-Deep darkness
-No joy
-No hope
-No memory
-No knowledge
-Forgotten by God
- ...
-Silence.

Well. That's pretty depressing.

Don't want to talk about death or dying so will talk about travel from here to ... well, not real sure to where, but travel away from here. A voyage allows the implicit deceit of inferred return.

3. "He's in heaven now."

Now? Ever visited with anybody who died and went to heaven and came back to tell you all about it? The only one I know of who died planning to go there and promising to return - we're still waiting.

Clinically dead isn't dead. That's why it's called "clinically dead." Dead dead is dead. Nobody's been "clinically dead" longer than a few hours without becoming dead dead. Near death experience is almost (but not quite) dying, and then reviving. The reviving part is critical for the notion, otherwise it's no longer near death experience, but is just death.

A few folks with near-death experiences report the warm glow where everything was peace and love. Others didn't feel the love, they report terrors never felt before. Most who "die clinically" when revived have no particular memory to tell.

And nobody, nobody, who stayed dead ever told anybody anything about it.

4. "He's cryogenically preserved."

Oh, yeah. Right. Sure.

He is dead.

Not preserved. Is not near death. Is not clinically dead. Is dead dead.

So for those of us who say here is all there is, that there is no there ... what, pray tell, are we talking about to say he passed? There's no there there to pass to! There's just here. And he's not here. He's dead.

He will fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Like the flower in scorching heat.

It's just what happens at the end.

5. Resurrection.

Resurrection happens when you're dead dead and something outside nature vivifies inorganic matter, the atoms reconnect just so, and you come back to life, body and consciousness and memories and experiences and life systems intact. And you are here once again.

It happens after the end. After the end end.

Still waiting for it.