Death – how to prepare for it?
Art Harun
Let’s be frank. I don’t think anyone of us would want to die. Everybody wants to live and live. As long as we are healthy, that is.
However, I would be lying if I say otherwise. There were times – and recently, there were many – when I had just wanted to die.
Such wish would present itself, for example, when I was reading some decisions of our Federal Courts. Or when I was having dinner and the missus switched to channel 104 to watch Akademi Fantasia or some idiotic programme which the people at ASTRO call “comedy” starring the most so-not-funny group, Senario et al. Or when I saw the “new” Proton car, Inspira. Or when I read about some perve marrying an 11 year old girl. Or when I read things which they pass as news and articles in Utusan Malaysia.
These moments are to be distinguished from moments when I wish I could make somebody die. These are many too. Like when I read about another death in police custody. Or about PLUS being “compensated” by the government for making billions.
Whatever it is, my point is, I am sure not many of us could accept death in a good way. How could we? Death however, like Dr Mahathir and his crooked bridge, are a certainty. We cannot escape from it.
The next point is, realising that death is a certainty, how do we prepare for it?
Umberto Eco has a perfect answer. In his text, “Come prepararsi serenemanente per la morte” (reproduced in English in Turning Back The Clock; Harvill Secker, 2007), Eco writes:
