Like all human beings, existentialists are complex, but the most obvious characteristic is their dispassionate disrespect for death. Seeing death as a normal part of life, existentialists think of death . . . like Peggy Lee thought of love -- "Is that all there is?"
Through the haze of religious Faith and the passage of time, I remember learning little about death as a child, except for a nagging sense of abandonment. It was no different than a divorce and no more respectable.
Those veterans who have lost buddies remember an unjust punishment being imposed on them by a faceless, immoral authority that rips a buddy out of your life. It also didn't deserve respect.
I have a loved one in her fifth month of hospice. Last week, I lost a 48-year old friend in Richmond, who died suddenly and unexpectedly. Last night, another loved one was told he has two to six months.
Maybe, I am thinking about death too much. As a financial advisor, my disrespect for death must be dispassionate enough that my evaluation of economic and financial data remains unbiased. I must be dispassionate enough to avoid over-reacting to Europe in general and Cyprus in particular. Fortunately, as an existentialist, I have no problem being dispassionate.
Pop star Lady Gaga sings that people are born however they are, which is like saying a big hunk of raw marble might contain a statue. It might be marble, but it is not Michelangelo's David. That takes work!
Through the haze of religious Faith and the passage of time, I remember learning little about death as a child, except for a nagging sense of abandonment. It was no different than a divorce and no more respectable.
Those veterans who have lost buddies remember an unjust punishment being imposed on them by a faceless, immoral authority that rips a buddy out of your life. It also didn't deserve respect.
I have a loved one in her fifth month of hospice. Last week, I lost a 48-year old friend in Richmond, who died suddenly and unexpectedly. Last night, another loved one was told he has two to six months.
Maybe, I am thinking about death too much. As a financial advisor, my disrespect for death must be dispassionate enough that my evaluation of economic and financial data remains unbiased. I must be dispassionate enough to avoid over-reacting to Europe in general and Cyprus in particular. Fortunately, as an existentialist, I have no problem being dispassionate.
Pop star Lady Gaga sings that people are born however they are, which is like saying a big hunk of raw marble might contain a statue. It might be marble, but it is not Michelangelo's David. That takes work!
