I got off work early today and decided to head down to a lounge on campus, find a comfy chair and read my book for class. I knew i wouldn't get shit done if i went straight home...anyway, a quote from Socrates really threw me for a loop:
"For let me tell you, gentlemen, that to be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death whether it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to a man; but people dread it as though they were certain that it is the greatest evil; and this ignorance which thinks that it knows what it does not, must surely be ignorance most culpable....so I shall never feel more fear or aversion for something which, for all I know, may really be a blessing than for those evils which I know to be evils."
As a person who has spent most of her natural life completely terrified of death, this was quite eye-opening for me. Not in a "suicide is ok now" way, but a "if something happens to you, don't be afraid to die" way. He is right; we don't know what's on that other side. Many religions have theories but NO ONE has ever been able to come back and report. PLUS, every time you see psychics talk about communicating with dead people, those dead people seem to overwhelmingly report how happy, calm or at peace they are. AND they be hanging around their loved ones all the damn time. So i can spend time with my family but not have rent or bills? YEAH!!!.
ok for real tho, I still think my true fear of death stems from knowing how sad my loved ones would be...especially if my children were still children. so maybe i'm more afraid for them than i am for me.
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