Inevitability. Everything in the world has to come to an end, cease to exist, meet its maker. Humans, made up of nothing more than simple atoms, cannot avoid their fate. Conversations occur every day, in which, men and women discuss how perhaps one day scientists will defy the laws of nature postponing the true end. What people fail to realize, when discussing this trivial matter, is that despite our human rationale, we are meant to die. Has anyone ever really sat and pondered why only the dead know what it feels like to die? Even then, does the dying really know what it feels like; the senses go, and before they have a chance to comprehend that they are dead, they are already gone.

Have you ever been in the room with someone when they die? In the moment when they take their final breath, there is this ominous silence that is only broken by a final gurgling exhale. It feels like a presence has left the room, that everything has changed, but then you realize nothing has. I am not sure if it is better to watch someone deteriorate into oblivion, or to be told it happened suddenly. Either way, it not only forces the deceased to face the inevitable, but it makes you, as a dying human yourself, realize that with every day you live, you are one step closer to death.

These thoughts are absolutely abysmal, but is it not in the tragic that we find true beauty? Watching someone’s death causes the soul to wither into a ball of sorrow, but when the moment is over, it blossoms again; you have just witnessed beauty at its finest. Think for a moment about the way the body works as it ages. When you are young, your bones, skin, and organs are all functioning at an optimal level, unless you were blessed with a disease that made you realize the beauty in death long before you were forced to grow old. Then, as you begin to age, your bones, skin, and organs all begin to slow down, morphing into a newer version of yourself. I say newer because, according to science, your cells continuously regenerate over several years so that none of your former cells remain; you are constantly a new you. Finally, as your age creeps closer to 80 or 90, it becomes hard to do the most basic of tasks. Your body is worn; it is no longer a finely tuned digital clock, but a grandfather clock that slowly ticks its way down to midnight.

At this age, you have no control over yourself. You stop working, become bored, no longer drive, and rarely leave the house because…what is the point? Most of your friends are dead, and the ones that are still alive try to get together, but that disinterests you because why talk about the past when you can’t go back?

When I myself am posed with the question of “what is your greatest fear in life,” I can easily answer. To me, there is no sense in continuing to live when I can no longer move forward in life; I do not want to face the challenge of being at a stalemate with myself. You see, when a person comes to the point in life when they spend a majority of their day imagining the past, it is almost certain that it is time for them to go.

That brings me to a discussion of what the past really means. The past only exists because of the memories that we, as humans, hold on to. If tomorrow there was a scientific discovery in which all of our memories could be wiped away, would there even be such a thing as the past? Taking this further, if the past only exists due to our memories, can the past be altered? Humans are an emotional species; we shape our reality to fit the needs of our minds. We can change our memories without realizing it, altering our past into something that never was. In that sense, we willingly invalidate our memories.

In this day and age we toss around phrases such as, “you only live once” and “live in the moment,” like they are slogans for optimal living. This is not the case. Yes, you do only live once if you think of life as a linear plane, but relating this back to death, no one really knows what happens when you die. Saying “you only live once” may be the biggest fallacy that the world has ever conjured up, but you won’t know until you actually die yourself. As for “live in the moment,” you are always living in the moment. The past is something that ceased to exist the moment you were born, and with every breath you take, it continues to fade. You cannot take back time, and you cannot change the past, but you can alter what lies ahead of you. Fear should not lie in death, but the moment right before you die. In that moment there is nothing you can do but sit frozen, in the shell of your mind, waiting for… the inevitable.

By: lostinperception