Dead is dead: defining it is too complicated! Written by Mama Cash

The one thing I know for sure is that someday I will face death. How soon or how far-flung is the unrequited query? Often times I speculate on how I will die – a morbid thought I know, but a consideration I tend to keep in mind because one thing's for sure; that day will come!

What does it mean to die?

Defining death is really something I can't quite explain – I guess to me it simply means the opposite of alive! And alive to me is having life, breathing, being and existing – in other words the opposite of end. Therefore, death equals to life's cessation?

I don't really want to get into the hard-core scientific and philosophic connotations of the concept of death nor do I want to deliberate on medical terminologies such as brain death, permanent vegetative state, cessation of heartbeat, biological death, clinical death and the rest of those crappy approaches that technology has come up with to complicate even more the identity of death! To me, dead is dead – once you're dead, that's it!

But what to me is mind-boggling is what to expect at that ugly (or maybe not too ugly, who knows?) moment!

Sometimes I feel it will be the ultimate journey through the quest of life – an expedition to the unknown nowhere land that might even be a better place than the world we live in. Other times however, it totally jolts me out of my wits because I'm so damn scared of going through pain before dying.

I once talked to a cousin of mine about this topic and being a passionate traveler himself, he expressed his excitement to go on this final voyage. He perceives it as another one of his many thrilling adventures, no different from his backpack trip to Marrakesh or his steep climb to Mount Apo. I don't think I'm quite as brave as he is though!

The latter is perhaps what the majority of us fear the most. Death is evidently the end of life and once it hits us, time is definitely over – basically, we're just there! I believe that it's the process of dying that horrifies us all to death, ironically! Or at least, it horrifies me!

So, do we have any notion of what it feels to die? Obviously not! And the very few individuals that can extrapolate their experiences on meeting their end are very vague about their tales.

Ideally, everyone wants to die peacefully – but is there really a situation as such?

Makes me wonder ...

Mamacash