Death to Death! [I Won’t Go Gentle Into That Good Night!]

Socrates / Op Ed

Posted on: October 18, 2013 / Last Modified: June 18, 2024

In the past 3 weeks I had 3 deaths in the family: First, my aunt died suddenly from pancreatic cancer. Then my dad had a burst brain clot. And a few hours ago my grandmother had a stroke. All in all, I haven’t had so much death since my mother passed away when I was 14…

Unfortunately death is not an experience unique only to me. Each and every day 155,000 people die. [That’s almost 2 people per second] Since the beginning of time many billions of people have died on Earth. And so it should be no surprise that we have learned to cope with it. To rationalize and accept, even embrace it: “Death is natural.” “Death is inevitable.” Some dare call it even “necessary.”

But go tell that to a 14-year-old who just lost his 38-year-old mom to cancer. Or a mother who has just lost her baby. Why not try a husband mourning the love of his life. [Even if it is after 50 years of marriage]. Go ahead – rationalize! Bullshit all you want. Tell me to be reasonable; to embrace what I can’t stop.

But I refuse!

I will not be reasonable. Or quiet. Or accepting. Or gentle. I will not embrace the biggest scourge humanity has ever had!

I WILL RAGE!

And that’s the least that I can do. That’s the least that you can do too. To wake us up. To stir the imagination. To begin the fight. And to make us believe that we can do this. For us. For them. Forever!

One day humanity will write Death’s obituary. One day we will put to death the first, the last, the ultimate killer – Death herself. One day we will proclaim the death of Death!

And maybe I will not be there to see it. Maybe I would have lost that battle myself. But it doesn’t really matter. Humanity will win the war! And my rage would carry on to that day. My rage would be a part of it. [And so can yours]

As Dylan Thomas said:

“Do not go gentle into that good night, […] Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”