I don’t understand why people fear death. Death is easy. It just happens. Sometimes there’s pain involved, but it’s short and fleeting. Plus, our bodies protect us as we die. Adrenaline pumps through us, shock blankets us, confusion and denial carry us along as long as we need them to. Everyone dies, but not everyone lives. Living is the hard part. Living requires us to learn how to peacefully interact with other people. We have to learn healthy coping skills to replace our default survival mechanisms. Life is scary and hard. We need to confront things that need to change and actually do things differently in order to change them instead of merely slipping back into old patterns of behavior. Life is a series of unfortunate events spackled with periodic positive reinforcement. It keeps us guessing, which is what captivates us and makes life such an amazing adventure. And yet, our fear of death often prevents us from enjoying life while we’re here. I don’t want to live each day on autopilot, as a repeat of the day before, just to keep it predictable and safe. I want to live, to really live, even if it makes death a real possibility.