Friday 

Six Articles of Faith

Not easy to talk about a subject that people usually don't want to talk about, but one way is to deal with that reluctance itself as a key to the way we feel about what we don't want to talk about. So I talked about it.

We all have such varied experiences in life, and we end up so different, it's a wonder we can communicate at all. Whatever is the opposite of peas in a pod, that's us, each one a complete individual, down through the fingerprints to our genetic code. Yet despite this extraordinary variety, there are things we all share in. Wait long enough and you have to face death, just like everyone else. It's one experience you can guarantee we all have to go through.

So why isn't everyday death a topic of constant conversation? We deal with tragedy and the anguish of those left behind, or are horrified and intrigued by those who murder, but rarely talk about what we are going to have to face ourselves. Indeed, what scares us is that at that moment we do face ourselves, seeing who we are, and the truth of how we lived our lives. It is the moment we live our lives for, and we should be training ourselves to face it.

Muhammad said to go to sleep as though you will not wake in the morning, and to face each day as though you will not see the night.