CeeJay
09-27-2005, 10:02 AM
Now, I know that Breandan posted a topic about being afraid of death, but I wanted to bring up something a little different : about how you deal with people dying. Now, I know it's never easy to lose a loved one/friend/family member, but I'm talking about people whom you don't even know dying.
For example : Last week there was a huge accident near my apartment. A mini-van had run into a truck (they kind they use to go up into telephone poles) and smashed itself pretty bad. The truck seemed unscathed, but was in a huge blaze. Basically, if anyone had been in there and hadn't been able to jump out in time, there was no chance that they would've survived. I was at the scene of the accident way too late to do anything (the fire completely covered the truck and the cops had already started arriving), but still, I fwelt bad that there wasn't anything I could do. I didn't like just being another curious onlooker, but I felt that going back into my apartment and ignoring it would've been even more cold, especially since the whole thing was only a block away from me. I finally went back upstairs once the blaze was out and the cops has started slowly directing traffic through the scene again.
But the whole thing made me think about how I deal with death in general. I work in an environment where, even though it isn't the only thing I write about, I do hear about quite a few people that die. Heck, I just got an e-mail 20 minutes ago telling us that somebody had gotten in an accident abroad and had passed away. That particular e-mail made me pause for a few moments, not because of who it was, because I didn't recognize the name at all, but because it made me realise once more how much I encounter these things.
Now, I know that death is a natural thing. We all die at some point in time. And shedding a tear for evey person in the world that passes on would leave me dry as a bone in ten minutes. But, I also don't want to feel as if I'm completely numb to it either. Death, in a strange twist, is an important part of life, so trivialising it seems disrespectful in a sense.
Any thoughts?
For example : Last week there was a huge accident near my apartment. A mini-van had run into a truck (they kind they use to go up into telephone poles) and smashed itself pretty bad. The truck seemed unscathed, but was in a huge blaze. Basically, if anyone had been in there and hadn't been able to jump out in time, there was no chance that they would've survived. I was at the scene of the accident way too late to do anything (the fire completely covered the truck and the cops had already started arriving), but still, I fwelt bad that there wasn't anything I could do. I didn't like just being another curious onlooker, but I felt that going back into my apartment and ignoring it would've been even more cold, especially since the whole thing was only a block away from me. I finally went back upstairs once the blaze was out and the cops has started slowly directing traffic through the scene again.
But the whole thing made me think about how I deal with death in general. I work in an environment where, even though it isn't the only thing I write about, I do hear about quite a few people that die. Heck, I just got an e-mail 20 minutes ago telling us that somebody had gotten in an accident abroad and had passed away. That particular e-mail made me pause for a few moments, not because of who it was, because I didn't recognize the name at all, but because it made me realise once more how much I encounter these things.
Now, I know that death is a natural thing. We all die at some point in time. And shedding a tear for evey person in the world that passes on would leave me dry as a bone in ten minutes. But, I also don't want to feel as if I'm completely numb to it either. Death, in a strange twist, is an important part of life, so trivialising it seems disrespectful in a sense.
Any thoughts?