• Question: What is death to you?

    Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Zhiming Darren Tan

      Zhiming Darren Tan answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      My death is the end of my life, which I consider to be the permanent loss of my consciousness.
      W. S. Merwin: “Every year without knowing it I have passed the day”
      http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171868

    • Photo: Fiona McLean

      Fiona McLean answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      So the great think about the world is that it is a cycle. “The Circle of Life” (see The Lion King for further information). So when we die and get buried or cremated we go into the ground. And in the ground plants can grow and trees. And bugs eat plants and birds will eat the bugs and so on. So we become something else. Which is actually really nice. My favourite scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini actually had a great view on life and she said that she was never scared of dying as we don’t disappear when we die because you leave a message behind. As a scientist that is one of the greatest things because you can leave a message that can help humankind and have an impact on people for generations.

    • Photo: Anna Bramwell-Dicks

      Anna Bramwell-Dicks answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I view my death as the end of my physical presence on Earth. However, I hope it isn’t the end of my spiritual presence, in that my family, friends and students will continue to live and think of me and the things that I taught them.

      With the World Wide Web now so dominant in society I also think that I will have an enduring presence online which continues after I die. It would be nice to think that my grandchildren’s grandchildren will be able to know me a little by viewing my current online presence – so they will probably be able to see my Facebook, perhaps even my Twitter account. And maybe… they will be able to see my answer on this page too!

      So, if you are reading this from the year 2150 and you are a descendent of mine I would like you to know that, on this day, Monday June 23rd 2014, I was thinking of you. I wish you every happiness.

      I also really hope that by now engineers have figured out how to stop umbrellas turning inside out on a windy day, because that really annoys me.

    • Photo: Elaine Cloutman-Green

      Elaine Cloutman-Green answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about this as I lost someone very close to me a few years ago. I think for me death is loss of self. My sisters brain had a massive bleed and so although her body was still alive for a while, everything that was my sister had gone. Although her death was several days later I think of it as being the day she as my sister ceased to be.

      I’m not religious so I don’t believe that there is a place where we go to when we die. I believe I carry my loved ones with me in my memories and therefore I have them with me in that way.

Comments