This week, I’ve decided to take a look at a kinda morbid topic that will eventually involve everyone: death. It’s not going to be totally macabre, but it should be interesting, nonetheless.
It has been said that one absolute thing about life is that no one will get out alive. It is also said that two things that are absolutely inevitable about life are death and taxes. Everyone will die at some point, some sooner than others, unfortunately. For the most part, no one knows when that moment will come that their time has expired. Some leave this world due to advanced age, others by accident, and still others consciously decide to terminate their existence on this world. Regardless of how, it happens.
Usually, we don’t know the time or method we will pass away. Some people say they would love to know, so they can take advantage of every possible moment. Then there are those who absolutely want to be left in the dark. Which camp do you belong to? Would you want to know when and how you will die? For me, I prefer not knowing. I enjoy the day-to-day of my life, having the experiences of being. If I were to discover the details of my demise, knowing me, I would constantly dwell on it, overthink it, and not really even live anymore. It would become a non-stop mental battle for me. Before I began taking my depression medication, I honestly would think of and imagine myself being dead. I have driven down the road alone and imagined my vehicle crashed into a telephone pole, or another vehicle running their red light and T-boning my car in the driver’s door. Since taking my meds, I don’t have those dire thoughts anymore. I actually would like to live a long time. I can imagine myself being that old man who’s yelling at the kids to “get off my lawn”🤭🤣.
When the day comes that it’s my turn to cease existing, I want it to be quick and painless, like going to sleep and not waking up. I suppose that would be peaceful. I would totally dread drowning. Being stuck underwater, unable to breathe, suffocating until losing consciousness. No thank you. Along that line, getting suffocated by an animal or being buried alive are also two ways that bother the hell out of me. Just the thought makes me cringe and gives me high anxiety😨.
DISCLAIMER: If you have a weak stomach, don’t read the next section. Skip to the section beyond the double bar below.
Something about death I find interesting, though, is played out in the Saw movie franchise. If you’ve never seen any of the Saw movies, they’re a psychological type of horror movie series where each movie builds upon the events of prior movies. So, you have to watch them from the beginning. Okay, spoilers now for those who’ve never seen them. The character nicknamed “Jigsaw” (John Kramer, played by actor Tobin Bell) captures people and puts them into a trap, from which they must attempt to escape if they want to live. Kramer was diagnosed by his doctor with cancer, and in his mind, he is attempting to teach these victims a life lesson. Most of the victims, though, end up dying in these “games” when the fight or flight or survival of the fittest instincts kick in. Some of the ways these people die are rather gruesome, but if you’re a fan of this kind of horror, it’s interesting to watch.
Some of the deaths in these movies include getting your head smashed between two giant blocks of ice. Others were decapitated, several from blood loss due to sharp objects (saw blade or razor wire), then there was one poor sap who got his limbs twisted and broken, then his head snapped.
I believe it was at the end of Saw 5 that the FBI agent dude met his demise by getting flattened by the walls closing in on him. Human pancake, anyone? For having a very low-budget beginning (the first Saw was filmed in and took place entirely in what looked like a meat locker), these movies brought in quite a bit of money. Why can’t I have that kind of luck?
When speaking of death and horror, who could forget those corny movies of the 80s, like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and others. People seemed to get the bejeezus scared watching those movies back in the day. I was not really a fan of these movies then, but now I see them, and they’re just “meh” to me. Nothing particularly gruesome appeared on the screen; you would get an idea from a shadow or a blood splatter that appeared, but nothing graphic. By today’s standards, those shows were mild. Hell, even the original Robocop was more graphic. In the scene where Officer Murphy gets killed by the gang dudes, they actually show him getting riddled with bullet holes, and what appeared to be his hand getting blown off by a shotgun.
Yes, death is all around us, it is inevitable and it happens every day. Every minute around the world, roughly 100 people die, or about 2 people per second. Births outpace deaths currently by 2-to-1, so population is constantly being replenished. Unless something dire happens within the next few hundred years, the human species won’t go extinct any time soon. I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. As long as I’m here, you’ll still have my unpredictable posts to read and enjoy. Take care of yourselves, and help take care of someone else. Stay alive, be kind, be safe and be well.
Ray’s Rants of the Week 