What is death and what should we believe?

According to Wikipedia, death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism; a very simple definition for a very complicated term. What is death in terms of human life? What does death mean and what does it do? How can we live with death everyday and yet not understand its true meaning?

Perhaps when a person dies they meet God as many believe. Or perhaps they simply fade away into nothing. Perhaps they slip into another dimension where only spirits can go and the shell of the human body is no longer necessary. Or perhaps they go to a world of their own design. Perhaps they suffer with chains and unrest as depicted in some stories. Perhaps they are finally free of their fetters and can live as humans were originally made to live.

I am not an expert on death and I do not claim to know what happens or where they go. I have feared death for a long time as a gruesome monster who wears a long dark robe and carries a scythe. He comes to your dying bedside and smirks at your discomfort and pain waiting for that very last breath to escape your lungs before dragging you down to join others who have also breathed their last. Then he places you in a position of suffering for the length of millenniums to come.

Are we destined to suffer that kind of fate? Is that why it takes so long for people to die when they are injured or suffer from cancer or old age? Are they afraid to make that journey with the man in black? Or are they just too strong to die?

Do they see their life passing before their eyes in a kind of parade and celebration, emphasizing their good and bad points along the way? Or do they slip away from their body quickly and know no more even though loved ones sit at their bedside and weep for their passing?

Are they aware of those who sit and await their death? Do they hear the soft voices bidding them farewell? Do they feel the lips gently kissing their forehead? Do they feel the warmth of the hand that holds their hand? Do they know we are there?

Death is a scary end to the life we live. Death is shrouded in black and gray shadows filled with questions for which we have no answers. Death takes some people quickly and painlessly and others slowly and painfully. Some are simply there and then gone and others linger and linger because their heart just keeps beating. Is that because they are strong? Or is it because they have something left to do?

• Some say death is heaven with peace and final contentment. There is no pain and there is no fear. There is only God and his angels.
• · Some say death is a new beginning where we float around and see our own bodies lying helpless and empty. Then we pass into the new world where we are reborn as another being all together.
• Some say death is a new beginning where we can live in peace and harmony for ever or we can chose to return to the earth we left and relive our lives once more.
• Some say death is heaven and hell with no choices given.
• Some say we must be sorry for our sins before we die or we will suffer endlessly for all eternity.
• Some say we are doomed to end when our last breath escapes our lips.

We may never know until we actually face death ourselves. However, I would like to believe that there is a new, better world waiting for us when we die. I would like to believe that there is an entity that guides us in this world and then welcomes us in the next. I would like to believe that we are destined to be faced with the good and bad choices we have made throughout our lives. I would like to believe that life is simply another step to a better world and a better life. I would like to believe these things, but who knows if I am right.

Who knows if any of us are right in the way we believe. Perhaps we have all been terribly mistaken. Perhaps we will have to face a whole new way of life totally alien to us. Perhaps we will have to admit that we are simply the larvae for another life like the caterpillar whose life ends when he becomes a butterfly.

I have heard people talk about the light and salvation. I have heard people talk about heaven and hell. I have heard people talk about a new beginning and I have heard people talk about the final end. I have heard it all, as I am sure you have; but the truth? Sadly, we must wait, as a passenger waits for a delayed plane, to see what the truth of our lives will be. Until then, I hope we all live life to the fullest so that when we die, we can at least feel that we have lived.