Today, I was cleaning my room in my parent's house and I found this gem. It's from my 8th grade English class.

you should have put something in there about the Pope.

I believe life is a gift but so is death. We are spiritual beings experiencing a physical life not the other way around. When we die we have the chance to come back and do a better job and learn something else.

the gnostics say that death is a chance to rejoin the true essence of the universe

theres a book of transcripts from black boxes (after aircrashes).
most pilots say '..........oh shit'.

Well, look at it this way penelope, when a black box, records the last words of most pilots who are about to crash, do they feel it? Not really. They hit the water, BAM, their off to the next world, they hit the Earth, Bam, their off to the next land. "Oh shit" is nothing more than a "natural" reaction to the event that occured. "Natural" meaning "physical." Being more of an "agnostic" not a "gnostic" I tend to agree with butterfly on the issue at hand. "Death" is something that scares just about anybody, don't get me wrong. But does dwelling on it make anything better in the life that you have? Not really. The "universe" is physical, the "Afterlife" is more metaphisical and/or "spiritual." Where do your thoughts come from, your brain right? What powers your brain, electricity right? Where does your "will" to live come from? Everyone has a "somewhat" different and/or "somewhat" similar answer if any answer at all to that last question.

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue." -Hagakure

Being in the "now" moment, is definitely what is most important of all. And once a "being" is capable of "fully" understanding a "moment" then there will be nothing else to pursue. Right now, we all as "humans" have got "plenty" to pursue.

nah,I dont think I'll look at it that way,too boring.

have a pretzel.

oh shit!

Fellini does a terric line on Popes .
He is acely commended.

So, feeling pain isn't as boring? I don't like pretzels. "oh shit!"

I find the concept of death comforting .
Most people hang around far too long.

That was "partially" my point. Death is comforting, especially a quick one.

Life is moment to moment and we should get the the most from it. I personally believe our existance which is spiritual in nature is "Moment to momennt" or should I say life to life. The afterlife is preferable be cause it is spiritual and connects us with our source of being what ever we as an individual may take that to mean. Therefore death is like going home. It is a chance to revisit the true essence of the universe but in my opinion merely a visit. We are spitiual beings. Our life force no matter how we feel we got here is made of some type of energy. Energy cannot be destroyed. When our physical cloak is destroyed we go back to the origin of our existance and ite only natural that if that energy source is constantly being used to create new humans as infants that person who died has to have their energy returned either in part or whole to create another being. Therefore one way or another in part or whole we as spiritual beings come back so each life is a "moment" in our existance. And yes death can be comforting when it comes at its own time because our spirit or "energy" misses "home" or its source.

Your biodegradable "body" and the electrical impulses that power it go back to the Earth from wence it came. Your will to live and any and all feeling "to be" return home, and can also become reborn again, either here on Earth, or ANYWHERE else in the Universe, if Earth, bores you, and you have nothing more to learn, from this physical existence, as a human. That is to say, we choose everything we do in this life, unless we are enslaved by another, thus we were given freewill by God to do as we choose to do. And so, whereever our "will to live" and other feelings "to be" come from, it's safe to say we are given just as many choices, probably even more, to do as we please, when we are ready to move further down our own personal road of progression, to complete enlightenment, with our creator.

Nobody knows how long we were put on this earth for. Life is a precious gift and how we use that gift is part of our "free will". I choose to live my life the best way I know how, not to take anything or anyone for granted, to be thankful for the small and the big blessings, and yes to even be thankful for the not so good that comes along in life. That which does not kill us, makes us stronger. Stronger in our character and stronger in our faith, and helps us to keep going, no matter what till the time comes that we are no more!

By the way Bert, you are and were a very talented writer.

The Hagakure is great, ever see 'Ghost Dog'?

Yep, I talked about it briefly on my orginal node about Death, taxes and gasoline.

What I really come away wondering about after reading Bert's article is why he only got a "check plus."

A dear friend of mine from high school took his life this week. I suppose had he been any one of the other 2,000 people I passed through the hallways with and not the man my sister decided to marry, it wouldn't have been so bad. Unfortunately I lost touch with him the past 3 months and I now don't know what happened. My sister and him separated, but didn't divorce. It's a real messed up situation, he was truly one of the nicest guys. I sided with him over my sister when they split up, thats how much of a nice guy he was. You couldn't bare to take any side but his.

Death is a real mystery.....

I've been "touched" by death a fair amount the last month or so. My grandfather died a few weeks ago. Not a shock considering he was 81, but still not a pleasant experience. A couple of my co-workers have also had several close friends/relatives pass since mid January. I don't know what it is about this year, but there sure are a lot of people kicking off around me.

It was rough too cause it had been a couple weeks since I'd seen my grandfather. Missed out on Christmas cause I was out of town, got to see him around New Years for a get together. I guess I still haven't fully dealt with it in my head, its the first person I've been close to that has passed. Its hard.

mmm,me too.
I've thought about it quite a lot as all my relatives get old an drop off the tree.
Unless you can get someone qualified to deal with it for you or you really know what your a doing ,its messy and struggling for the last few breaths.
Nurses finally OD my Mum on morphine,but put her through 6 weeks of unecessary suffering first .Its convinced me that you have got to get it organised.
My cousin gassed himself in his car .Hes was about 28 .I have the greatest respect for suicides.Dont wring your hands over them.Life can be a real pain.

Just reread all the thread .WTHF are we still clinging on here?

Within the past 2 months about 6 people at my work or close friends to people on my team at work have passed away. It really has been a strange time with so many people passing away lately.

Feb is the suicide month ,low health ,weather,end of winter.19 young people commited suicide in Bridgend (Glamorgan,Wales)since the New Year.They think its an internet cult .It also a shithole of a town.

is Bert dead?

I would hope that Bert is not dead (not that I actually know him). I can't imagine this site hanging on for as long as it has without some kind of intervention by Bert. I hope he'll eventually come back to it. I also doubt it will ever be what it once was.

Okay, theoretical question time: Your business parter and you get very close friendship wise as well as business wise. You both tend to go out drinking together and get involved in some recreational drugs. A time comes where you end up getting a little too fucked up and things go too far with this buddy as you suddenly are in an awkward situation. After it's over and you sober up, knowing that this may come out to public what happened, could you live with yourself?

That's basically the idea we've figured so far, kinda fucked up.

Dont be so calvinist about it .If you are that close to some people then its inevitable unless you are a goldfish.

so whats happened next ?
(living vicariously as have no life)

I avoided pretty much all the family confrontation regarding the situation, but I guess there's some life insurance policy that might be paying out. However I still don't believe those pay out for killing yourself. Maybe I just learned it wrong from TV.

I lost thread back there ,and thought it was you in the interesting fuck up.
Sad about your brother in law.Drugged up stuff leaves you morbid and relationships seem mad.
Families just eat up stuff like that.Hope I'm not messing up my children too much.My parents just about killed me off.