h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Something that has begun to occupy my mind more as I travel further down the road of my life is getting everything done before I depart. Next year I will be fifty, and even if I'm optimistic I'm pretty unlikely to make it to my centenary, or possibly even half way from here to there.

The average man in the street, being agnostic or atheist, worries about this as he feels he has nothing to look forward to. The monotheists worry about it because they have a judgement coming, but we on the pagan paths should rejoice - huh? - well let me explain.

Although there is a wide range of opinion and lore amongst pagans about what comes next, many will agree with me that we are on a journey of many lives. Whether this comes about through transmigration, or reincarnation, or in some other way, it is all part of the natural cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth. Some believe there is a resting period between lives - such as the 'Summerlands', others that the journey carries on pretty much immediately. Some think the whole person travels on, others that only the spirit, stripped of its ego and intellect, continues.

From what little I have come to understand from my interactions with my gods I believe it is the latter. But no matter, I will find out soon enough, and that's the rub, for none of us can really know until it's all done and dusted.

So if there is nothing we can do about death itself what can we do about the actual process of dying? Personally I was inspired by a friend's father who, upon learning that he had terminal cancer and only a few months to live, told his sons that just as he had taught them how to live he would now teach them how to die. He did this with great dignity and with caring for his loved ones as he had done all his life.

We each need to consider that when it comes to our time how we can serve those around us, our family and our friends. There is nothing we can do for ourselves, for if we are dying we are dying, we must face it and move on. But we can make their last days, weeks or months more tolerable and full of good memories. Remember that there lies our true immortality, in the memories of those we leave behind as we pass through the gate and onto the next part of our journey.

If I am given the grace to a have period of dying before I pass I will use it to love my wife, my children, my family and my friends. I will be cheerful to the end, sharing my confidence in my onward journey, and not spend the time mired in regrets that have no hope of restitution or railing against the gods and my fate. This will be the lesson of my death - what will yours be?

For a start, if I have anything left in the way of money when I die, I shall have miscalculated. But what there is, I have willed effectively, to the people I want it to go to, and I review that will each April (or sooner if necessary).

If you don't have dependants, it is essential to make sure you have a will, signed, witnessed, and in a place where people can find it and know where to look.

--

Jez

PS

Sorry to be practical, but this is the heathen in me - the spiritual side of it, I know about, and it's largely not my concern, but that of my ancestors, my gods and my norns.

The mundane side, I had to organise for myself.

--

Jez

>Remember that there lies our true immortality, in the memories of those we leave behind <

QOTD

Read Hofstadter 'I am a Strange Loop'. He shows how this is literally true in the sense that our interactions with others forms the neural circuits in our brains. It goes beyond a mere memory.

He talks about his wife who died way too young. He came to realize that she was still alive in his mind as she had made a version of herself there.