Death Cafe is an idea from Nigeria. It seems very obvious. A group of people meet together to talk about the topic of death. The point is to think about death to enhance the value of life. Not in a hedonistic way. Not in a religious way. Just to think and speak. To confront the idea of your own death is challenging and not really encouraged by western youth cultures.

A good death is what we all want. But what is it? To die in sleep? Or drop dead during a favourite activity? Is this to defend and protect ourselves against a long lingering death of senility and suffering?

Our culture would have us think differently but the thoughts of death do not have to be about age. Children think about death from an early age. Why would this be so? They have so  long to live? Of course anyone thinks about death if they have experienced bereavement. But children can spontaneously obssess about death with no particular reason. Growing into an age of imagination it is not difficult to wonder what endings are or how life might end.

Death is all around. To quote the Bhuddist: “Life is uncertain; Death is certain.”

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This article is designed to provoke argument and critique