When you are dead, you are just a noBODY

My writings on life and death (especially the latter) tend to disrupt the comfort zone of some people. So, let me point out that whatever written here are strictly my personal opinions, please read with an open mind.

OK, here it goes ...

Last week, my insurance agent called to persuade me to add coverage for major critical illnesses ... I quickly and bluntly declined and she was taken aback on why I was so quick on my decision.

Why I was not at all interested in the major critical illnesses coverage?

Now, have you read the definition of major critical illnesses by your insurance company? If you have not found out yet, let me tell you ... by the definition of major critical illnesses specified in the insurance policy (at least the policy that I have read), you will have be so sick that you are almost two third of the way into your grave ... only then, you are eligible for a claim. Don’t believe me? Go read your policy now.

The way I look at it ... if it is as critical as defined in the insurance policy then yes, I will need money if I intend to seek treatments, surgeries, drugs, chemo-radiation therapies and other procedures to keep me alive.

I may be alive but the question is ... am I living a life or just staying alive? Really, I have seen many of those who went through torturous procedures and took high doses of drugs just trying to stay alive. Yes, they may live a while longer, barely staying alive but in the end, they still lose the battle without ever knowing if they have really suffered from the illnesses or from the treatments and procedures.

But having said that, I am sure there are people who have sought similar treatments and procedures and have recovered fully to enjoy the rest of their lives very well. That is why I said earlier ... please read with an open mind.

I don’t intend to seek treatment if I am terminally ill. Very likely I will be in a lot of pain ... so, I seek pain killers and plenty please. Of course I will also seek strength to face the inevitable, to face death but with as little pain as possible ... really, I am more afraid of pain than death.

So that is why I declined the major critical illnesses coverage. As tenacious as my insurance agent is, I knew she was not going to let me go so easy. She then said that I don’t have to use the money for medical treatments and procedures if I don’t intend to look for a cure. I can use it to pay for other things ... like making sure that I have a proper and appropriate ‘final journey'.

I saw that coming and I knew exactly she what she meant.

So I told her ... as far as I am concerned, there is one and only journey that is to be travelled when I am alive not when I am dead. My journey starts when I was born and I am living out my journey now and will be celebrating it every day until the day I die and my journey ends. That’s it ... there is no ‘final journey’. 

What comes after someone is dead is basically a cleaning up process ... I don’t think one needs to spend a lot just to get a body properly disposed of. Yes, a BODY, that is how you will be addressed. You don’t even have a name or an identity ... you will only be known as a BODY. People will say ... ‘clean the BODY’ or ‘wash the BODY’ or ‘embalm the BODY’ or ‘put the BODY into the coffin’ or ‘take the BODY to the cemetery’ or ‘lower the BODY into the grave’ or ‘prepare the BODY for cremation’.

Simply put ... when you are dead, you are just a noBODY