As a funeral professional, I’m often asked, “Why do I do what I do, and how did I get into this profession? People also ask me “aren’t you afraid to be around dead people?” I chuckle because my response is always the same each and every time I’m asked. “I’m not afraid of dead people at all, it’s the living that scare me – dead people can’t hurt you, but those that are living can!”
People are naturally curious when it comes to death, so it’s no surprise to me that they are curious about my life and my desire to embrace death. Their curiosity is normal; it’s human nature for them to be drawn to the things they fear and don’t understand. Think about it, most people are curious about death because it reminds them about their own mortality. It might sound crazy, but it’s the truth. Our curiosity draws us to slow down and gawk at gruesome care accidents as we pass by them on the interstate doesn’t it? It’s our curiosity that makes us stop flipping through channels on the TV or scrolling through the news feed on our phones when we come across a headline that reads “dismembered girl found in the park on the east side of town”. We are curious beings by nature, so it is no wonder people are curious about what I do.
Death is an interesting and scary phenomenon for sure, but to me, it’s a vital partner in the relationship of life. It’s what I do, it’s what I’m curious about, and its what I seek to understand. I don’t see death as my enemy, I see it as a complimentary companion that helps me to eliminate the darkness in order to shed beauty on life. Like the yin and yang, whose concept of dualism
represents how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are and can be complementary or interconnected, the duality of life and death revealed
In a world that is composed of many different, and sometimes opposing forces, life and death, coexist and even complement each other to form a whole greater than its individual parts. Each are mutually dependent on the other, each unable to exist without portions of the opposite element visible in each of them. Death is the universal truth of life. It is the moment, that place in time, where life and death join to reveal the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
