Oh Wow

Yesterday, Halloween, was a day to think about death. And beyond all the pumpkins and candy and costumes is the more gruesome imagery of worms and skeletons and tombstones.

The reality is known--we all have to go. We may go early by accident, like racecar driver Dan Wheldon, in active old age, like my 90-year-old friend Don, or by tragic lifestyle, like Amy Winehouse. But, as we have some choice in the way we live, we also can choose how we face the inevitability of our death.

Steve Jobs, the genius responsible for so much we know and love in our lives, according to his sister said "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow" as his final words. I find that easy to believe. He looked forward and saw something exciting. He had an attitude of curiosity and discovery even at the very end of his too-short life. The attitude that made those words possible is what made his 56 years worth living.

We can't know what Steve saw or experienced at that moment, but I find it comforting and encouraging that what what he saw couldn't have been a bad thing if he was so excited about it. Perhaps if we lose our fear of death we can lose our fear of life and live it to the fullest. Because a wasted life is more tragic than death, it seems to me.