It’s All In How You Get There

On my way home from work today the news guy on the radio was reporting about a swimmer in southern California who was killed by a great white shark.

The news guy said how it “was a horrible way to die”.

As I listened to him I thought to myself, aren’t all ways to die “horrible”? I mean, is there really a “good” or “pleasant” way to die?

OK, I guess you could die while making love, or after taking some mind-altering drugs. I suppose either of those could be “less-horrible”, but the end result is still the same… You’re dead. That’s really the horrible part. Not how you get there.

I’m sure being chewed in half by a great white shark is painful. Or, maybe not since our bodies generally don’t feel pain at the time of the injury. For the sake of argument though, we’ll assume it’s painful.

But the pain only lasts until death arrives. And at that point, did the pain even matter? Surely not to the dead guy.