Thursday 2 November 2017

Defining Death

         Day after day  we breathe, eat, pee, poop,sleep, laugh, cry,fight, learn, make friends, fall in love, have sex, get married, bear children, make money, go broke, take pictures, party and engage in more of life's inevitable adventures that make up the memories we enjoy while we live and those people would remember when we finally get gripped by the cold hands of yet another inevitable force of life, Death.

       Death, biology says , is the last component of living things ; organisms, plants,animals, or human. All must meet a point where their entire system shuts down, organs fail to perform their specific duties and cells fail to exist. However,long they may live, death would still prevail 

Contrary to the definition of death by many scientists and scholars, religious leaders have come to define death as a doorway to another world. A portal to eternal life or eternal doom after judgement is passed based on how individuals spent their lives.

      Maybe I believe in the earlier . Maybe I believe in the later but I do believe without a doubt that death is an angel and unlike other angels , this particular angel given the ability to seize life from unborn babies, children,teenagers, adults, old people, men, women, transgenders, illiterate, graduates, ordinary people,noble men, poverty stricken people,rich people, good people, bad people and so on through various means that includes the assistance of the human factor, untimely and unexpected snatch by the accident factor, brief or terminal  illness of the  health factor, the mass deaths through disasters of the nature factors or the supposedly normal ' call to glory ' by the supposedly normal 'old-age factor' was created in a specific image so that he would not compromise or let emotions come in the way his duty. Like the army trained for war, to hide, to kill and to show no mercy, this angel has not only been trained but has been deprived some skills other angels posses that may stand as a threat to the achievement of his purpose in life if left to stay. 

         Humans ,because of the fun that comes with living and breathing in free oxygen, whether poor or rich don't wish to have the privilege of life taken away from us. Except in cases where the angel in study chooses the health factor,creeping with him depression and frustration till the individual gets mentally and emotionally dead and is left with no choice but to die physically too through suicide. No body wants to die and we do everything we can to not just survive but live life to the fullest no matter the cost. If death could be conquered,humans are willing to fight. If death had a price, humans are willing to pay. If death could be appeased, humans are ready to burn offerings. If death had emotions, humans would play the pity party. God was aware of this before he created us and when he created this angel, he created him with a non compromising image.

  Death has no sense organ. 

          'Why did death take her, she was so beautiful "  "why didn't death take the murderers? the kidnappers? the robbers? " why take the three years old boy and not the 109 years old grand mother? Why does death seem to always take the wrong people? " The rants are endless. Death is cruel, they say. Death has no sense of sight, I say. How then can death tell the rich from the poor, or the powerful from the weak, the young from the old, the pretty from the ugly, the healthy from the ill when he is blind? How can he tell the young needs more years instead of the old weak grandma when he has no vision? How can he make comparisons like humans do when he cannot see ANY difference? To death we are all  flesh and blood coined out of dust ,to dust we belong and he would take us all back to that form according to his commander's  wishes.

        His ears are absent. He cannot hear your pleas for long life. "Graduating Medical student dies a day to graduation ceremony" " Didn't death hear that the boy was finally graduating after six years in the university? Couldn't he just spare him? " Secondary School Teenage student dies during abortion" While her stomach ached terribly, she probably started a little prayer to death. 'Death spare my life and I promise to keep the baby, sorry I tried to abort but now,I will keep it, I swear it, please" but how can death hear when it has no auditory organ? He takes the lives God instructs him to and takes his order from no one else, he can't even hear you if you try. You may propose riches, gold and the wealths of the world in exchange for immortality but death would not accept, he cannot see the riches nor the wealth neither can he hear your proposal. He is deaf to your pleas to survive cancer, to overcome him to live long. Only God can hear you, death cannot hear your prayers .

        Many assume death is a god, perhaps the only god and to gods, sacrifices can be made to appease them. Bring them to like you. Satisfy them so they don't harden their hearts towards you , hurt you or ---kill you. Animals and food stuffs are taken to the shrine and burnt offerings are made that the gods may perceive the incense become pleased with them and forgive them. The same is offered to death in exchange for long life but when they eventually die, they blame the 'god' for being cruel, heartless and unforgiving. "After all our effort to appease death, he still took her" but death didn't see your efforts nor hear your plight, he didn't even smell your incense as his olfactory organ is absent. Death cannot smell. It cannot perceive your fear . Your life is not yours, why then should you be scared to have it collected? 

        If death cannot smell your offerings, how then can he taste your sacrifices? Death cannot be bought with food and life cannot be paid for by the burning of rams.  To him , all blood types taste the same. "God's"  and his to take whenever he deems fit...Whenever he wishes. His to drink up when commanded to.

        Angels are powerful, strong and beautiful. They say the same of death but the least,death is not" they say ; maybe he isn't because he has no skin. There is no skin for goosebumps to form in fear of killing. He does so without mercy. They say death has no compassion. How can he when he cannot feel anything?  " The woman was gripped by the cold hands of death" 'cold hands' referring to the non-sympathizing , non-compassionate and inconsiderate skinless 'hands' I choose to refer to as clamps because hands cannot be hands without the presence of skins to feel touch. Clamps cannot feel the shivers that run down the spine at the presence of death or the profuse sweat that pours out the sweat pores. It cannot feel the tears that flow out of the eyes of the mourners.

        Death must prevail over all living things? Yes. Death is a portal? Yes Death is an angel? Yes Death is cruel? I disagree.

        Death is unaware of the consequences of his actions in the lives of his victims. Death is the most powerful of all angels and sometimes I wonder what it feels like to be him.To live knowing I cannot die because only I possess the power to take life. To be behind the deaths of loved ones and not see their pain, remain deaf to the screams of people burning into ashes in accident scenes, unable to smell the stench of pain from the corpse wheeled out of the hospital wards, drinking of the blood of many without tasting the bitterness of their souls and with no mercy, take the life of a baby without guilt in my heart but I cannot because only one angel can do these 'cruelty ' and he has no sense organ.