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Tag Archives: death
The Truth About Getting Older
It’s said that age is just a number. Sure it is. But I wonder why that number, the one that implies, “Now you’re actually old,” varies so widely among individuals.
My husband Stephen and I are both in our 60s. Yet often (too often) he says to me, “We’re old now.” With our four parents aged 85, 89, 89, and 90, I refute his … Read more
The End is Near
The following narrative is closely based on a deeply moving conversation I had with “Knut,” an elementary schoolmate whom I’d never forgotten, and with whom I managed to get back in touch just as he was facing his mortality. In this novel excerpt, the grieving narrator, an atheist, is trying to decide her own future.
Knut lives in a fatigued yellow wood-frame bungalow with windows … Read more
Whose Afterlife Matters?
Try this thought experiment:
Suppose you knew that, although you yourself would live a normal life span, the earth would be completely destroyed thirty days after your death in a collision with a giant asteroid. How would this knowledge affect your attitudes during the remainder of your life?
That’s what the author of a new book suggests we do. Death and the Afterlife (Oxford) by … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged afterlife, apocalypse, atheism, book review, death, Death and the Afterlife, Kylie's Heel, philosophy, Samuel Scheffler
1 Comment
Kill Your Cat
My mother’s cat died today. My mother, turning 84, is a cat person, and I’m not. It’s not just that I’m allergic to their dander. This cat, Missy, hissed at me from the start, and always threatened to scratch me or anyone who came too close.
This post isn’t really about cats, though. It’s about facing death rationally. Missy wasn’t my mother’s first cat. She … Read more
10 Bright Ways to Think about Death
It may seem paradoxical, but what more rational way for a Bright to say good-bye to the old year and welcome a new one than to consider the end of everything?
That’s why I’ve compiled some approaches toward death held by various clear thinkers. Philosophers, psychologists, scientists, poets, and novelists have expressed a wide array of attitudes about dying. I find each of the ones … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged death, denial, fear, mortality, new year, novelists, philosophy
66 Comments
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