Death is a teacher?

Leave it to good fortune, a friend, and USA Today!  My dear friend brought me a copy of an April issue of the USA Today newspaper so I could read an article about the upcoming Rolling Stones tour. And, there in the same section was an article about a new book, by Erica Brown, entitled:  Happier Endings: Overcoming the Fear of Death. Seems like everywhere I go and whatever I read, there is a reference to death.  When something is on your mind, you find it everywhere.

In the article, Erica Brown, shares a few spiritual tips for easing the final passage. USA Today's Craig Wilson asked Erica the question, So we're supposed to be happy about dying?  Erica replies, "Only if you hate living.  Otherwise, it's an unavoidable reality, so we might as well get better at it.  As a society, we stink at it now."  Then he asked, We have to learn how to die, how?  Erica says to "do a life retrospective.  Pass down your hard-earned wisdom.  Give away your possessions while you are still here to get pleasure from the exchange(because otherwise you may cause all kinds of family wars you never intended).  How can death be a teacher?  "Death is a teacher if it helps us answer the question: when is the last time you did something for the first time?"  Erica says death is an issue that some tend to avoid, but, an issue that you have to talk about.

With the recent passing of my mother, I find much comfort in the fact that she always told me death is the beginning of something new and wonderful.  And, I remember once when close to death myself, I felt peace, calm, and divinity. So, for me, I look at death with excitement, expectation and curiosity.

So, we are just left to smile at good fortune, gather information from friends and the newspapers, and, if your lucky, go see a Rolling Stones concert!