07 April 2017

What if Death Were Optional?

C. S. Lewis, to Warfield Firor, an American surgeon, 1949:
Have you ever thought what it would be like if (all other things remaining as they are) old age and death had been made optional? All other things remaining: i.e. it would still be true that our real destiny was elsewhere, that we have no abiding city here and no true happiness, but the un-hitching from this life was left to be accomplished by our own will as an act of obedience and faith. I suppose the percentage of di-ers would be about the same as the percentage of Trappists is now.

I am therefore (with some help from the weather and rheumatism!) trying to profit by this new realisation of my mortality. To begin to die, to loosen a few of the tentacles which the octopus-world has fastened on one. But of course it is continuings, not beginnings, that are the point. A good night's sleep, a sunny morning, a success with my next book--any of these will, I know, alter the whole thing. Which alteration, by the bye, being in reality a relapse from partial waking into the old stupor, would nevertheless be regarded by most people as a return to health from a 'morbid' mood!

Well, it's certainly not that. But it is a very partial waking. One ought not to need the gloomy moments of life for beginning detachment, nor be re-entangled by the bright ones. One ought to be able to enjoy the bright ones to the full and at that very same moment have the perfect readiness to leave them, confident that what calls one away is better.
--The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume 2 (HarperCollins, 2004), 986-87; emphases original

5 comments:

essay best said...

oh this is something very interesting and out of the topic really. i mean i don't think so that it can happen in the real life. but i have no words yet to explain my feeling if death were optional:)

essay best said...

Death in inevitable, and there is no escaping it. These what ifs are not really helpful and we should embrace the facts of life.

Anonymous said...

If death were optional, no one would want to die. We as humans are greedy for life and its luxuries so making death an option is a bad idea.

Jack said...

Thumbs Up! Hope you will keep posting more articles.

braddie granes said...

This is so thoughtful Dane. Sometimes I also wonder about what if death were optional!?