Woody Allen also said about dying: "...I just don't want to be there when it happens." smile

BTW, Some us may die, like what happened at birth, without being aware of what is happening, but, for surely, we will be there. Agreed?

I have done the funeral of quite a few people who died in their sleep--BTW, a good way, to go, IMO, and one, if I had the choice, I would choose.

MY PERSONAL STORY
BTW 2, I grew up, virtually, in third-world conditions, surrounded by the deaths of several family members caused by TB. Until WW 2, which, ironically brought a modicum of prosperity to Newfoundland, most of the people on Bell Island--a mining and fishing town http://www.bellisland.net --lived on the economic edge, especially when the mines layed off workers.

For the record, my oldest brother, born in 1905, died at 25 leaving a daughter my age, now dead. Close to him in age to him, my oldest sister, her husband and her two young children all died. I was about 2 and 1/2. But I remember them. My mother nursed all three, caught TB, and she died when I was 5. My father became ill, not long after that. He died when I was 14, 1944. Health care for the poor, in the days before medicare, was virtually non-existent.

My older six surviving siblings helped raise my sister and me. We were the only two to get an education. The second oldest brother--the head of the family died two years ago. He was 92. My younger sister and I are the only ones left.

I tell these stories to point out that I grew up under no illusion that life is easy and that there is a god who makes life easy for us, automatically.

In 1942, during WW 2,--because of its iron-ore mines--Bell Island was attacked by enemy subs. Sixty-nine young merchant seamen lost their lives, when four iron-ore carriers were sunk near the loading piers and one of the piers was hit by torpedos. After both attacks, I was there and watched many of the bodies brought ashore. I was 12.

IMO, my experiences helped shape what I later came to believe: We have to accept life as it is and take personal responsibility for making it better. There is much more I could say about this, but I will leave it there, for now.

Last edited by Revlgking; 07/20/07 02:22 AM.

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org