8th Grade Retreat

Hey all :-)

Our 8th graders from the school where I work at are graduating tomorrow night (Wednesday).

Yesterday (Monday) about 40 of them went to a retreat at a local camp. It was a pretty laid back day - we sat around and talked for a while. A former teacher came back to visit them for the day, and the 8th graders were really glad to see her. I think she was just as glad to see them, to reconnect with them.

One of the things the 8th graders were supposed to do was reflect on how they had changed in their 14 years of life. When asked what one of their greatest fears was, several of them said that death was - either death in general or the specific death of a loved one.

So in no particular order, some random thoughts on death & dying . . .

I remember that St. Francis used to call death his sister, a gentle sibling that would come when you needed her most and take you to heaven.

And I wonder if their views on death will change as they get older, as they have other people in their lives die.

Some people, IMNSHO, withdraw from others, choosing lives of quiet desperation so that they can become inured to the death around them. They seem to want to hide from the inescapable fact that everything dies. They think that if they have no close friends, no human contact, no emotions, no intertwined fragments of their lives then they will not have to hurt - they will not have to go through the death of a loved one.

The Buddha taught that all life is suffering. He taught that we suffer because we cling to illusion of permanency - we want to believe that the people, places and things in our lives will be around forever - that *we'll* be around forever.

But that's a lie - everything is impermanent - everything dies. Our universe is slowly dissolving into chaos, towards chaos. Our lives are always winding down, sometimes cut short when least expected. Our toys break down. Relationships end.

And the Buddha understood that - looked at it with clear understanding and taught that we should not freeze our hearts because of that one fact.

He said that once we understood that all of life was fading and ephemeral, we would start to let go of our illusion of control and immortality. We would start to engage the people, places and things around us in a detached sort of way - living life to the fullest, always aware that at some point the place we love to go visit, the person we love to spend time with, the hobby we now have - everything would eventually fade away.

That wasn't supposed to make you withdraw, however - it was supposed to spur you to action *now* - action in *this* instant, in *this* moment.

Jumping back to my own Catholic faith, we are taught that death is nothing more than the twinkling of an eye - there is no such thing as death. Either we are alive here on earth or we are alive in resurrected bodies in heaven or hell.

Death is not something to be feared. It hurts, of course, but not for the person dying. They are beyond the earthly realm. It hurts us who are still alive, because of our attachment, our longing to be with the one who has died.

And that is part of our human makeup - we hurt because we love, and we love because we are made in the image of a God who *is* love. We are made to love, we are made for love, we are made of love.

Anyways, I may ramble on some more on the topic, as it's in my head at the moment. But for now, I will enjoy my life to the fullest by eating of the migas that my wonderful wife has cooked.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo