"A simple child, that lightly draws its breath, and feels its life in every limb, what should it know of death?" - Wordsworth

Someone once told me they were conscious of their mortality. Can this be? Can you ever truly be aware of the fact that one day you will simply cease to exist? If we can’t predict the time or manner of our death, the specifics, can we be cognizant of anything more than the semantics of death. Only the deceased are aware, in my opinion. I will never know what it’s like to die, for once I am dead, that’s it, I'm gone, and I'm never coming back...no worries.

I have a friend who’s afraid of the concept of death. She can’t accept the fact that upon that fateful day she will stop, completely, and return to the earth, to fertilize a plot of land for years to come. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t care that once I’m dead I’ll be in the ground. Does it matter? I won’t be aware of my surroundings, so should I fret now that for eternity my skeleton will exist apart from the metaphysical me I’ve put so much time and energy into?

No, I don’t fear death. To fear death is to neglect life...to neglect the countless possiblities that still lie in our hands or slightly out of reach. I presume that the fear of death is nothing more than the disastisfaction with the life lived and presumption that the future should hold little more of benefit.

I only ask that I be cremated and my organs donated, should they be intact. Oh, and that Bob Dylan play at my funeral…granted he escapes the elusive concept of death to play his guitar immortally.