Death
deth = death
from
datum = given
Here’s a subject to be avoided! Psychologists say that death is the ultimate fear for most people, and yet we experience death daily in one way or another.
The sun dies each night and is reborn in the morning. Our cells die daily. I’m sure you’ve heard that every seven years every single cell in our bodies dies and is replaced. Why are we so afraid of death?
I believe it really depends on what you believe about it. If you think you’re going to heaven, you’ll experience heaven when you die. If you think you’re going to spend a lot of time with the worms, then you’ll meet worms. And every other thought you have in between.
As far as I know, every single one of us will die, and the deeper Latin etymology tells us why. Death is a given. Part of the deal here. The end of the contract. We know we will die and few of us know when.
So? Since it’s a given, what do you say we get on with the business of living and let death meet us when it’s time? Ask: How can I deal with the given of death today in a life-giving way?
Infinition:
I face my fear of death today, and it’s not so bad. Death is an inevitable part of life. Once my fear is gone, I see death as a valuable part of my life.
reprinted from God’s Dictionary (Tarcher/Putnam 2002)
For more divine definitions, visit the God’s Dictionary blog!
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Dr. Susan Corso is a spiritual author, speaker, and counselor. An omnifaith minister and the author of God’s Dictionary (Tarcher/Putnam 2002) and The Peace Diet, she has had a spiritual counseling practice for more than 25 years. She has been an intuitive since childhood.
Susan’s blogosphere writing may be found at Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post, and Beliefnet. Her website is SusanCorso.com
One of her favorite occupations is writing spiritual fiction. She is the author of The Healing Mysteries of Mex Stone under the pseudonym Shulamith Burton. The audiobook of the first in the series, Oklahoma! Hex, came out in September 2008.
Susan is the founder of Sanctuary and ten-year author/publisher of a free e-newsletter, Seeds. As a professor at the accredited College of Divine Metaphysics, she teaches and ordains ministers.
Susan has been published in magazines, online magazines and newsletters including Business Ethics, Beliefnet.com, Ode Magazine, Science of Mind, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, New York House, Q-Spirit, Self, and Winning Ways. She is the author of several tape series. Susan also writes for the theatre: The God Show, I Would Never, Fight or Flight, and PeaceWomen.
For many years, Susan was an organizational consultant and motivational speaker guiding nuclear scientists as well as entrepreneurs into their life purposes. Some of her former clients include Westinghouse Hanford Company, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Gila River Casinos, and the American Nuclear Society, among many others.
Today she functions as Chief Spiritual Officer for corporations. She lives in one-sixth of a Victorian house outside of Boston, with her beloved spouse, director/actress/teacher Sheriden Thomas, and the spirit of her familiar cat, Charles of the Ritz.
Her mission in life is peace.
Death means "to be given" not "a given inevitability." The deeper etymology that you refer to does not exist as you are bringing much conjecture to the derivation. The sun does nothing each night that it isn't doing during the day, the earth has revolved but the sun has not gone anywhere and it certainly hasn't died. The cells that die do not all die at once, it is just that every seven years your body has gone through a full cycle more or less.
I don't mean to be contradictory. I just wonder if there is a better way to reconcile our fears and feelings about death and dying. There is so much that we do not and cannot know from our limited vantage spot on this tiny little dirtball of a planet, we should try not to confuse or distort the things that we do and can know.