Hollywood California is well known for oddities. In this
city one can find many “out of the ordinary venues, museums, theaters, and
nightclubs”. Even some of the people walking around add their own factor of
“weirdness” to the streets of Hollywood. Tucked in the corner of Hollywood
Blvd, sits a museum that for years has called my attention, --the museum of
death. This museum has captivated my
interest for the last 6 years, for one reason or another I had never really
made an effort to visit the museum of death, well, let me be honest, there were
several reasons why I had not visited this museum all though I had been highly interested in
learning what the museum held inside. The first reason was that visiting a
museum that focuses on death appeared to be extremely morbid. Secondly, the reviews that I found online
cautioned that the museum was very explicit and that a lot of the content was
very extreme and some individuals were unable to stomach it.
So
finally after 6 years, my friend and I while working on this project that we
like to call the P&J Project, finally ventured out to visit the museum of
death. I must admit that as we drove to the museum we had this nervous feeling
settled within. We didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t know if we would be
the only ones in the museum when we arrived, and we didn’t know whether people
would look at us funny for visiting a museum dedicated to death, dying, murder,
and anything associated with the concept of dying. As we arrived the parking lot appeared to be empty, we then
made our way into the front entrance. Our nervousness led us to believe that
building was closed. As we try to figure
out whether the museum is open for business or not, a couple approached us and
ask us if the building was open. My friend managed to find the entrance into the building by simply
pushing the door. Upon entering the museum I
was amazed by the number of
people inside. My notion of being alone in this museum quickly disappeared and
it was at this particular moment that I realized that as a society we appear to
have a fascination and phobia for death. Visiting the museum of death motivated
me to explore the concept of death, so If I haven’t bored you to death by now
(bad pun I know) here is my 2 cents about what the concept of death and dying
truly means to me.
The idea of speaking about death and dying
has commonly been seen as a taboo topic throughout mainstream society which
many refer to as morbidity when one engages in such discussion. However this
concept of death and dying has also appealed too many that attempt to understand
the full cycle of life.
So, what is death? According to Webster dictionary death is
“The action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person
or organism, the permanent ending of vital processes in a cell or tissue.” In
other words, death is the physiological loss of life. So, what is dying? Again
Webster dictionary defines dying as “on the point of death. Occurring at or
connected with the time that someone dies. Gradually ceasing to exist or
function; in decline and about to disappear.” Again in other words, dying is
the physiological process of losing life.
As a society when we hear the term death or dying and we
automatically assume that we are talking about these physical definitions,
definitions that carry a dark and negative connotation. These concepts commonly
spark a phobia of death.
While death and dying are generally pictured as a physical
loss I would like to apply this concept to other faces of life. What if I told
you that while you may be able to take a full gasp of air, feel your heart
pulsing and be able to use logic, you can still be dead. Death and dying
encompass more than physiological loss, they encompass our faith, our emotions,
our mindset and our willingness.
Simply being physically alive doesn’t necessarily mean that
we are living life. Many times we go through life wondering what our meaning or
purpose is. How do we give meaning to our life? Having a meaningless life can
result in being emotionally dead. When we begin to lose meaning, motivation, or
simply emotional bonds with others we can say that we are dying emotionally or
even be emotionally dead. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her book “On Death and
Dying” researches terminally ill patients in an attempt to discover the faces
of loss, death and grief. In her research she finds that while many of the
patients continue to be physically alive many begin to die emotionally well
before they begin to die physically. It is possible to begin to die emotionally
even when we are not faced with a terminal illness. Take for example someone
that has experienced a difficult situation (such as being fired, or passed up
for a job or failed at something that they consider important), the feelings
generated by this loss are similar to the grief experienced when faced with
death. While the feelings may not be as strong as when loosing someone they do
begin to generate a sense of loss and disassociation. These factors create a
sense of a person dying internally, not physically but emotionally, little by
little motivation begins to widen, their willingness begins to fade, and the
purpose in life beings to be loss, transitioning to an emotional death.
So, if we can be emotionally dead,
we can also be spiritually dead. Now I’m not here to preach about religion, or
to define what spirituality looks like because I believe that we are all
entitled to our own belief system. However I am here to argue that faith in
whatever it is that you believe in is important. Many times when we have become
emotionally dead we can find solace in our faith. But what happens when we die
spiritually? What happens when have become so consumed by our everydayness and
have neglected our faith to the verge of not knowing what we have faith in
anymore? Have you ever had an emotional breakdown that you start questioning on
how you can regain spirituality and faith? At this point have we become spiritually dead? Faith is the notion or belief in something or
someone bigger than us. It is the feeling that no matter what else is going on
in our life that something or someone is there to guide us in our moment of
crisis. However when we lose our faith we truly become senseless.
So,
death can be more than a physical state, and dying can be more than a physical
process, it impacts our spirituality and our emotional state, however we can
also be mentally dead. When I say mental death I am not referring to not having
cognitive abilities. I am refereeing to the loss of mental willingness to
overcome problems. The loss of critically thinking about issues and ways to
resolve them is what mental death can look like. Our ability to push forward in
the face of adversity can be attributed to being mentally dead. Mental death
can occur when we are faced with adverse situations and once our faith and
emotional endurance have died.
There is more to living than being able to breathe and
process basic information or having a beating heart. Living life is
accomplished by a balance of emotional, spiritual and mental health. Allowing
any of these aspects to breakdown within us is like depriving ourselves from
oxygen. You need this balance in order to find meaning in your life. You have
to face adversity with a stable mind, emotional motivation and faith.
As people we fear the unknown, death and dying is unknown to
many of us. However physical death is not the worst thing that can happen to
us, dying internally and any of these 3 levels can cause us to be dead while we
are alive. When someone asks me if I’m afraid of death I can truly respond that
I am not afraid of death. Because being afraid of death is implying that I am
afraid of physically losing my life, which I am not afraid of because it is a
natural part of the human life cycle. Now when someone asks me if I am afraid
of dying, I can truly respond yes. Because dying implies that I am afraid of
the process of reaching death, to me this means not living life to the fullest.
It means dying at the levels that I’ve mentioned. I don’t fear death or dying I
fear not living.
