disgracian

i can relate to that. i don't speculate about death because i have no starting point. that's probably why i don't care much about it. dying, however, is a little different. that worries because the most common ways to die aren't very pleasant: cancer, heart attacks, car accidents, AIDS, etc.

Onager

People fear the process of dying, but experience has alleviated that fear for me. Think of any time you, or someone you know, were in a potentially fatal situation. Everyone has been in a situation that, circumstances being different, could have resulted in death - a car accident, an illness, taking too many drugs, etc. No one has horrifying memories of those times. No one seems to remember the last few seconds of any accident. If you died of fever, it would be whilst rocking in the gentle arms of delirium. If you were tied to a stake and set aflame, you would axphixiate - I've been told it's not a bad way to go once the process has initiated - and burns don't hurt until later. There is a maximum amount of pain you can feel, and I'm guessing most of us have already felt it.

If your're just afraid of getting cancer or being in a car accident (regardless of the fatality of the outcome) then I guess that you're afraid of life, not death.

disgracian

nah. i mentioned those particular methods of dying (cancer, car accidents, etc.) because they more often than not hurt. a lot. and, like a lot of other people, i don't like pain. that's why i'm a bit anxious about them.

i don't see how you can pin it down to an underlying fear of life. i mean, it's not as if these fears stop me from eating red meat or getting behind the wheel.

Onager

A car accident is only painful if you survive.

Being sick and getting hurt are parts of life, not of death. They could precede death, but they don't have to. I was trying to be a little too glib - I should have just said that you have a fear of pain, not death.

disgracian

close enough. though i never said i feared death...only dying.

as for my fear of pain, well, i suppose it depends on the context. i play contact sports and do karate so that negates a general fear of pain, because i get plenty from both pursuits.

NZAmoeba

I don't really fear death itself... I look at it as just like the time before I was born.

What I do fear though is not getting done the few things I currently have on my list as 'must do's'. And leaving behind others that will be hurt by my absence... there are a handfull of people I never want to hurt, so i'll do my damedest to avoid death, for them.

disgracian

aww, you big softie!

i agree though. my work here is not yet done, hence why i try to avoid being killed.