Death Is Part of the Adventure

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.”

I went to a funeral today. The mother of one of the members of my Secular Franciscan Fraternity passed away at 92. I was there to support him; I did not know her. But some of the comments by her family made it clear she was a good soul and much loved.

As I sat there, I thought about the fact that Chesterton died when he was just 62. He did not make it to the Biblical prediction about longevity: "Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong."

But given his weight, his diet, his drinking, his smoking, not surprising that he died relatively young.

By the way, the longevity of some of the "Friends":

Hilaire Belloc - 82

J. R. R. Tolkien - 81 

C. S. Lewis - 64 

Chesterton was a happy soul, not obsessed with death and what lies beyond. He did comment on it, though.

In the quotation at the beginning of this post, he does talk about how awareness of death can affect our view of what we have. Life is transient, death is inevitable, appreciate what we have and the people in our lives. Think of all the times when someone passes we regret not spending more time with them or realize what they meant to us and others.

Another quotation expressing a similar thought is: 

"It is this passionate sense of the value of things: of the richness of the cosmic treasure: the world where every star is a diamond, every leaf an emerald, every drop of blood a ruby, it is this sense of preciousness that is really awakened by the death of His saints”

One comment he made about the afterlife deals with the place we don't want to go.

“Hell is God’s great compliment to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human choice”

Yes, we do have free will, and we can choose Hell; God does not send us there. The fact that it exists is indeed a compliment. 

There are other quotations related to death and eternity, but here's one about living that struck me. 

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”

It takes courage to act and to fully live - but in acting and living we face the possibility of failure or death. If we fear failure and death too much, we can become paralyzed and not do what needs to be done or to live up to our potential.

One final quotation, one that is often cited.

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

Death is passive; truly living involves struggling and facing the challenges of living. 

Living is an adventure, and death is just part of it.

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