The object is a human skull. Without belaboring the point, our death denying society doesn t exactly encourage us to do this. It is a subject to be avoided, one that many people think too morbid to even bring up. But there are times in life when death seems to catch our attention more than at others. An awareness of death generally surface with children at about the age of four or five, and at various times during childhood.
Teenagers also seem to have many questions and fears about death.
Last Friday, there were almost 800 people here for the funeral of the young man who was killed in the car crash 10 days ago. As Karen so eloquently shared last Sunday, a serious illness almost always challenges us to begin to make friends with our death, and of course, in late life, if you will, when one s suitcase is packed and one is waiting for the train to arrive. What keeps us, of course, from being better prepared for death is our fear of death. The speaker, who was there to talk about Alzheimer s and other health-related issues, spent a good bit of time on death, and he asked the group to talk about their fears. I learned so much by just listening to what this group of seasoned elders had to say.