Facing Down Death
Most people are unprepared for the only certainty in life because they are afraid to look closely at death. But examining mortality can make life more meaningful — even for those who have just started theirs.
Death in movies for children has long been a device for the development of a character or the deserved demise of a villain, but rarely has it been the main theme.
The latest Pixar film, “Coco,” however, is set in an afterlife that is “both a happy and tragic place: a simultaneous celebration of loved ones’ lives and a lament for their loss,” Monica Castillo wrote in The Times.
The movie is about a boy who searches for his great-great-grand- father in the Land of the Dead. It takes inspiration from the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos and opens the conversation about death with a younger audience.
“We see a different version of the afterlife,” Ms. Castillo wrote, “one without pearly gates, clouds, angel wings or halos.” She pointed out that Día de los Muertos is unlike Halloween in that “death is not meant to scare us.”
A healthier attitude about death could help take some of the fear out of it; there is, after all, nothing more normal.
The Times described “Dying: A Memoir,” by Cory Taylor, as a “bracing illumination of terminal illness” that aims to normalize death with “electrifying matter- of-factness.” Ms. Taylor wrote the book after getting a diagnosis of cancer, from which she died in 2016. In it, she denounced the “monstrous silence” about mortality.
“For what are we if not a body taking a mind for a walk,” she wrote, “just to see what’s there?”
Jennifer Senior, who reviewed the book for The Times, wrote that these types of memoirs offer lessons on coping with “the terror of our own impermanence.”
“What do we do with ourselves as we wind down our time?” she wrote. “What do we think about, and how do we plan for our exit?”
For an elderly man in Florida, planning for his exit meant tattooing “do not resuscitate” on his chest, in bold capital letters and “not” was underlined. He even tattooed his signature underneath. The Times reported that a hospital admitted the unconscious 70-year- old and treated him, but he wasn’t able to speak and began to deteriorate. Doctors consulted an ethics expert, Kenneth W. Goodman, and they honored the man’s tattooed wish.
“You don’t go through that trouble,” Dr. Goodman told The Times, “look at it every day in the mirror, and actually not mean it.”
The man seemed to be engaged in a literal form of memento mori, the medieval practice of regularly contemplating mortality. This reflection has many forms across cultures — even today’s fashion culture.
Anyone who wants a ticking reminder can buy a timepiece called The Accurate from Mr. Jones Watches. The hour hand says “remember” and the minute hand says “you will die.”
Ariel Adams, who founded aBlogtoWatch, told The Times that this “entertains the form of a daily-wear watch, but with a message that reminds people not to sweat the small stuff and focus on the important things in life, such as actually living.”