Death

Element IV: The Human Being

From a simple point of view death is the moment in time when life is no longer present in a person's body. Where does the life go to? Does it go to "heaven" or does it disappear? There are many discussions about these questions and you may find yourself wondering about this event from one time to another for the rest of your life. It may mark the beginning of a journey or the end of a journey. You will have to decide this for yourself.

Whatever you may decide death is an event that affects both the person who has died and those of us who are still living. For most of us, death brings us many emotions mostly because we miss the person who has died. If the person is very close to us and we loved them we may feel a deep sadness or grief that we will not see them in our daily lives anymore.

As a living craftsperson, a vital part of your practice of LIFECRAFT must include skillful preparation for the experience of death both as one who will personally experience the event and as one of the living who must continue on living after the event of death has come to many who we will know and love during our lifetime. If we don't make plans, our survivors must make them for us; and for them it will be a very traumatic, usually costly, and difficult experience. Therefore, we must practice good craftsmanship through good planning to prevent this from happening.

People in every culture all over the world have established different methods and systems for dealing with the death of members of their communities. In some way they all come down to a few basic guidelines for you to consider:

• The Dead Person's Body must be quickly and properly taken care of
• Their memory and dignity as a human being is recognized in a ceremony
• The deceased's property is distributed among the living who remain
• The bereaved are comforted and reestablished into society without the deceased.

Fortunately in many places around the world there are instruments available to permit an individual to take care of the life issues surrounding death in anticipation of his or her own death. Through wills, trusts, insurance, and prearranged funeral plans one can plan ahead so as to alleviate much of the grief and dislocation that ones death will cause the living. Consider this important matter early in the life of your family so that it does not cause you unnecessary pain and to live life to its fullest. You must acquaint yourself with death for it is death which makes life precious.

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