Don't Fear the Reaper?

Every day, approximately 151,650 people die. Multiply that by 7 and you get 1061550 mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters dead in a week.

Keoni Jesus.Nan Hee Pak.Danielle Altorre.

These are the names of the dead.

What is death, anyway? Besides the loss of physical conciousness and body function. Is it the loss of someone? I prefer to believe that death is when someone starts living on a plane different from ours.

But then, what is the point of life? Well, I know there has to be something. Maybe it's to smile a little more, to snap a little less. To enojy oneself. Maybe it's to make others happy, to bring joy to the world around you.

We don't even know if there is something after death. Afterlife depends on what religion you are, and even then, do you really know? Then life isn't about what happens after you die.

Life is about living for the day. Maybe it's about finding the special things in life, the things that people write about in country songs. Loving someone, living on the edge, learning to trust and leap into tomorrow.

Life is the struggle before death. It's the struggle to make a mark on the world around you, the struggle to matter.

Life's a mix of love and hate. And of pain and beauty.

If you don't do anything with your life, and nothing changes when you die, what was the point of your life? Even if just one person mourns you, misses you, it's still a person. Just one person is all it takes to make a difference.

Gregory Maguire writes "To plant a death, you must grow a life".

So then maybe death is the final curtain call in the play of life. It's a celebration, a happy occaision. It's when someone dies, and you can smile tearfully and say "I really loved them. They made a difference to me."

Don't ever stop living and striving.

Rest in peace.