As one gets older the more one thinks about death & dying.
This is not because one becomes more maudlin, but results
from knowing or having known more people who are now
dead.
Over the last few years I have had to focus more of my
thinking upon the issue of how we might remember our
dead, how to write obituaries, & what is in my will.
All of which I view in terms of how we celebrate live,
while I have rewritten my will in terms of helping those
whom may live on after I’m gone.
Militarists talk about the ‘Glorious dead’, but I can see
that there is nothing glorious about how most people die
in war.
I just want to celebrate those peace activists who have
helped to prevent wars.
People like Ralph DiGia, or Dorothea Woods.
Which brings me on to the following piece by A.A.Milne,
which was published in his book:
Peace With Honour
An enquiry into the war convention.
Published: Methuen & Co Ltd – London – 1934.
‘ For the average person we could construct a table of
Comparative Deaths, which might go like this :
10,000,000 deaths from famine in China
= ( in horror ) 100,000 deaths from earthquake in Sicily
= ( in horror ) 1,000 deaths from influenza in Brighton
= ( in horror ) 10 deaths from typhoid in one�s own villiage
= ( in horror ) 1 sudden death of a friend.
Sudden death of 1,000 friends = ( in horror )
DEATH OF ONESELF.’
The examples may of changed over the years, but the same
kind of idea still holds true today.
Just think of any major disaster throughout the world, &
how ones national press will focus upon their own
countries nationals who may of been caught up in the
situation: – whether they were killed or not.
There is nothing like death to help focus ones mind.