BY CAMERON CARR, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I find myself thinking about sudden death. I fear dying for no good reason, dying at the hands of another or dying as the result of some freak accident. When I’m in a car I know; I could be dead 10 seconds from now. In less than an hour they’d have me on a stretcher. A week later they’d wheel me out for my funeral, empty eyed, wrapped in some blanket and remembered only through the gasps and cries of others. All hopes, dreams and memories squashed, by some sleepy driver of a tractor trailer.
Of course, people would tell themselves some lie about it. “It happened for a reason,” they’d say, and they’d be dead wrong (no pun intended), because tragic death does not happen for a reason. It happens only because it can happen.
Tragic death is random.
But isn’t that cruel? It’s a reality completely unfitting of the common lifestyle. It undermines the meaning we give our lives. It presents an absurd and terrifying fear rooted in an obvious truth. Everyone dies, and it isn’t up to us when and where it happens.
Mass shootings, catastrophic hurricanes and suffocating snowstorms prove that mother nature, times arrow, fate, God, whatever the hell you want to call it, that force that eludes the will of humanity? That force doesn’t care about our silly little lives. It treats us with complete indifference. Our lives are absurd and can never be fully understood or conceptualized.
Given this conclusion, I have two positive thoughts to throw at my fear of sudden death, and any other feelings of existential dread. First, nothing’s all that serious. Life can be funny when we accept its absurdity. Arrogance and radical beliefs are stupid and pointless in the hands of an indifferent God. Throughout history, rigid belief systems and absolute morality have led to cruelty and oppression. In an absurd world we can step back and laugh at extremists. We can poke and probe at the arrogant and powerful. We can remind the assholes of the world how pointless their hateful convictions are. We can laugh at the chronically serious and live out a less stressful existence. Comedy relies on this kind of humor and can make the world a better place as a result.
Second, we’re all in the same boat. The rich businessperson, the little homeless lady and the inmate on death row all play the same game. They’re all fragile human beings, doing what they can do with what they’ve been given to stay happy and comfortable until death. Through the lense of absurdity, wealth and status mean nothing. Life frightens and confuses all people. Realizing this gives us a sense of togetherness and sympathy. It gives us a bond that transcends material values and customs. The absurdity of life unites humanity.
So yes, it’s true, death awaits us all, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun in the meantime. Oppression and dogma can give way to comedy and humor. Wealth and status can give way to love and unity. We can make the world a better place by accepting its absurdity.
carrc19@bonaventure.edu
