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Life In The Literal Lane
Whereas most people in the modern world consider death to simply be the grim opposite of life, ancient people considered death to be a part of life ongoing… The sense that a new stage of life can grow out of the death of the previous phase was common knowledge to those living close to the natural cycles of life and death. Each phase of life could be seen to exhaust itself as something new or renewing tries to arise.
Yet, like the presence of an underlying soul, something about the place and meaning of death seems to have been lost on the way to modern life. “Death is the middle of a long life,” an old Irish proverb puts it succinctly. In such a conception, death appears not just at the end, but also right in the middle of things. Thus, knowing something about the nature of death could lead to knowing more about the essence and meaning of life.
The modern tendency to literalize death makes the nature of genuine change and transformation more difficult to imagine and approach. “Little death” is a useful term that can be used to draw a distinction between the end of a life and the kind of transformation that can happen and be needed in the course of life. When seen in the middle of the trilogy of life-death-rebirth, death becomes not simply the final act, but also a critical step in each transition to a life of greater meaning and deeper understanding.
