Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 08:02:29 -0500
From: Mirembe Nantongo <NANTONGO-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: PLC: Re: "The End of Life"


After (thank-you!) an inspiring book report on Sherwin B. Nuland's  "How we
Die," Paul writes:
 
>I don't believe I can ever commiserate with all other humans because we
>are all in the same boat (we all must die some time and some how) but this
>book sure makes it easier to come to terms with the inevitable. 
        
Someone noted earlier that there is "nothing inspiring" about death and I
understand that everyone has their own take on death, according to their
own experience.  My own reaction would be quite the opposite:  that it is
tremendously inspiring because it *is* the common lot; that in a world in
which so much sets so many at odds with so many, death is our unifying
fate; that  the more we live our lives with death in mind, the more
conscious we can be of our kinship with each other.  So I'm a little
puzzled when you say, Paul, that you don't think you can commiserate with
all other humans "because we are all in the same boat"?  Surely this is one
of the very reasons that you would be able to do so?

Speaking of attitudes toward death and death being part of life, I just
finished Muriel Spark's _Memento Mori_, a dark comedy about a community of
senior citizens, one of whose themes is attitudes toward death.  In
_Memento Mori_ the aging characters begin receiving mysterious phone calls
which they find unsettling, upsetting, reassuring etc, depending on their
own personalities.  The caller says exactly the same thing to all of them
-- "Remember you must die" -- but each of them hear the caller's voice
differently. As a laughing child, a sinister man, a threatening old woman,
a courteous young man, etc.

Mirembe Nantongo
Washington, DC
nantongo-AT-compuserve.com


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