
SORRY–The following from a questionnaire given to undergraduate students in a philosophy seminar on death is not funny, but I thought interesting. (Shibles, Death, 1974, 16-17)
DYING IS LIKE...A one-way ticket to another place, going to sleep without contemplating awakening, being born again –into a world less confining, nothing ever seen before, humiliation, hush-hush, a play, something I’ve never tried before, cosmic traveling, the ultimate trip, a final orgasm, like nothing else, falling asleep or getting knocked out, falling, entering another world, the end of a mysterious dream, a long sleep, a permanent place, nothing, being trapped in a box, fallen apple rotting in dirt, waiting for the answer, stopping and maybe starting, getting it over with, feeling yourself being the snake you killed as a little boy, letting go, making the last turn, filling the last blank, becoming the 360th degree, [no answer], going beyond, an eternal dream, beginning of the end, an infinite voyage, explosion of a super nova, being born, comma in a sentence, nightmare, ultimate in tranquil meditation, turning off a faucet, finding that the end of the tunnel is a deep dark hole, falling in a void, stone rolling and coming to a stop, bricks falling through air, a child swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills, falling asleep and never waking, leaving this life for another, driving 140 miles per hour into a snowstorm, being in a cement-block room, looking up through a long hole, hell, a nap after eating, a sunset, finding out what it’s really like, walking into a different room alone, letting go of your security blanket, leaving this world for another, not being, I don’t know, coming to the end of an existence, extinguishing a match, unplugging T.V., turning off a light, passing out, stepping off the orange, cutting off the power of a trolley car, closing-night of a theatre, finale, deep sleep, ending of physical senses, nothing you could ever conceive of or experience, walking into a cave and forgetting to come out, screaming at the top of your lungs and no one hearing, dropping a pin into the ocean, finding out that people are laughing at you, jumping off the high dive, a large magnet pulling on a small magnet until all its energy has been drained, trying to advance a genetic strain and failing, death is like almost nothing, feeling embarrassed, turning off a loud radio, having a mental block, getting lost, sleeping, breaking a movie film, taking an old car out on the road not knowing whjat’s going to happen next, waiting to go on a vacation, coming down from amphetamines, watching a blind person fall, dry heaves, listening to the static of an old-time radio and having the plug pulled out….(ibid, 16-17)
OUCH — Freud underwent 33 painful, life saving surgeries for his throat cancer. (Ibid, p 253)
There is no evidence for mind and so minds cannot be “read.” (ibid, p 389)j
OH DEAR–Ecclesiastes 1:18 “For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ibid, p 357) [Hide this from the kids]