On Death

As a child growing up in a country without adequate healthcare, I am no stranger to death. As a future physician, I will surely see plenty in my career. As we grow, we learn that almost nothing in life is certain. What makes death such a difficult concept to get over is that it is one of the few things in life that IS certain, it is inextricably linked to life, it signifies the end. And everyone has an end.

In the past year, those who are closest to me have painfully lost loved ones in unfathomable ways. Today, it occurred once again, without warning, in the most senseless way possible. I thought it would be easier to deal with this time, but it doesn't. There is no amount of reasoning that can ameliorate the pain and suffering of an individual. For us humans, what's harder than losing the love of your life, is never finding out why it happened, and why it happened to you.

 Most of us understand what death is, in a grand scheme of things it is a necessary part of life. As the late Steve Jobs said, it clears out the old and make way for the new. It is the harsh evolutionary truth of life. As humans, we stand on the side of a seemingly losing battle against laws of physics and thermodynamics and it's tendency to break us down. We all die in the end, but it is innately human of us to want to preserve those we hold dear to us. When they go, we lose a part of ourselves that we will never get back. What do we say to those who have lost a loved one? Even if you remind them of the truth to the cycle of life and death. It does nothing to heal them. They will need to find the hope to continue living, and they can only do that by themselves.