Living with loss: How do you think about death?
Most of the time, it seems that we are far from death or unwilling to talk about it, yet death is a “required course” in everyone’s life. No one, however, teaches us about this “course.” At some point in the future, we will inevitably encounter it, we cannot avoid it. Perhaps the best way to alleviate the fear, anxiety, and sadness surrounding the unknown of death is to learn about it in advance, to imagine it, and to accept it. This also helps us reflect on the meaning and value of ‘life’.
“死亡是一枚沉重而干净的果实，我们吃下去，医治太多活着的病症。”
First, please take a few minutes to watch this video. I recommend playing it at double speed or starting from the 7:00 of the video, and try to finish within five minutes.
1.How do you think about death.
#Here is a booklet that gathers various perspectives on death from different individuals. Please take a few minutes to read through it#
After reading, based on your own life experiences, please write down your thoughts on death.
Reflect on any “death” you have encountered or,
if you haven’t encountered it yet, think about your current perspective on death in your life.
·How do you perceive death?
·Do you consider death to be a weighty or negative matter?
·What impacts have the deaths and losses you’ve experienced had on you?
·If you haven’t experienced it yet, how do you contemplate the inevitable encounter with death and loss in the future?
·Have your attitudes and perspectives on death undergone significant changes due to specific events or individuals?
2.Those who have lost their loved ones.
#This is a booklet that collects stories from people who have experienced the death of loved ones and loss. Please take a few minutes to read it#
After reading, please choose one question and write your answer.
·If you had only one day to live,
and you could only do one thing that day,
what would you do? Why?
·Alternatively, if your family member had only one day to live,
and you could only do one thing,
what would it be? Why?
After reviewing the resources I’ve provided, by answering these two questions, I hope the audience can learn how to confront potential future death and loss, reflect on their perspectives on death, and reconsider the value and meaning of “life.” The answers will be collected and compiled into a new open resource for wider participation.
8 replies to “Living with loss: How do you think about death?”
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Please add a ‘Featured Image’
sorry, I forgot to update it, now it’s the final version.
If I can only do one thing on the last day of my life, I hope to cook a meal for my family in person. I have basically never cooked at home since I was a child. What I need to admit is that I am spoiled by my family. Every time, my parents and younger brothers do it. Now I have learned to live independently, I want to prepare a rich and delicious meal for them to express my gratitude to them and I am lucky to meet them.
Grandpa’s death is an indelible memory of my childhood. He is an outstanding teacher, good at calligraphy, immersed in the sea of poetry and books, and even published poetry collections. Although I was too young at that time and my memory of him was gradually blurred, every time I opened my grandfather’s bookcase and took out the books he had read, it seemed that I could feel his mood when he read it.
By reading his poems, I seem to be able to travel through time and witness his lingling among loquats and bananas. Grandpa’s departure did not take away his existence. On the contrary, he accompanied me in another form. Every book and poem is a written journey he left behind, which makes me establish a tacit resonance with him across life and death, and makes his spirit continue to bloom in the depths of my heart.
Someone has to die on his own. It’s up to the living to accept death on their own.
Stay with your loved ones all the time and do nothing. Because time passes most slowly, sensually speaking, when nothing is done.
1.Death sounds like a very cruel and heavy and something has deep meaning, but recently I feel like it is not that big because life is always much more important than death. I have a friend whose mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and did not know how many days she could live, but my friend study and work abroad having few chances to stay with her mother. Her mother’s cancer went on for years so it is hard to be like movies that all family members and friends gather together to company her mother. So death is just something she need to face everyday. She told me she hoped her mom could live longer and see more of this beautiful world, but she still needs to live her own life, work hard for her own dreams, and make herself feel alright. So sometimes people not familiar with her probably think she is a bit numb and cold because she has a busy and happy life far away from her sick mom. But when you really have love ones who have terrible illness, you would not regard death that important that you give up your own life too. Human are all alone eventually, and other’s deaths are others’ fortune. There’s a limit to what you can do.
2. If I only have one day to live, I refer to spend it as my normal day. And before a few hours I die I would write something to my loved ones and give them strengths to go on their life.