Death & Dying
My little girl had to come home early from school Friday. She was sad about my dying and told one of her friends that she was sad and why. Some other kids overheard her and started to laugh. She felt worse at being laughed at so she just wanted to come home.
What did the kids find so funny about death?
There is something very wrong with a society that does not understand death and dying. The truth of what society is all about is in the reaction of the most innocent, the children. We are not allowed to see the caskets arriving from Iraq because this government decided to hide the fact that people are dying and outlawed the media from showing these daily events. Death is not funny but it is certainly the news. Dying is not funny but it is certainly a reality.
Video games with death and dying are by far the most popular video games but the reality of the death and the dying is lost in computer graphics, which we all know are not real. This disconnect, between computer graphics and reality is what makes death laughable.
A few months ago there was a minister at a local church who was also the youth pastor, who proudly described the paint-ball outing they were going to have as a way of teaching teamwork to the kids.
Paint-ball is a game where each ”player” gets a handgun with paintballs for ammunition that the “player” is supposed to aim at another “player” and shoot them with a paintball. There are all sorts of obstacles and barriers to hide behind and teams are made up to “fight” another team. What is missing from this “game” is the fact that you have one human being firing a weapon at another human being with the object to kill that other human being.
No wonder the kids laugh at dying!
Somewhere along the way I misplaced the biblical disconnect between, “Thou shalt not kill” but only in paintball.
I wrote to the church, and any member whose name and address I could find, about my feelings about this planned activity and got zero response.
Is it any wonder that death is only a laughing matter?
I own guns and have owned guns for over 50 years although I am not a hunter. My children all know the difference between real death and playing at dying.
What did the kids find so funny about death?
There is something very wrong with a society that does not understand death and dying. The truth of what society is all about is in the reaction of the most innocent, the children. We are not allowed to see the caskets arriving from Iraq because this government decided to hide the fact that people are dying and outlawed the media from showing these daily events. Death is not funny but it is certainly the news. Dying is not funny but it is certainly a reality.
Video games with death and dying are by far the most popular video games but the reality of the death and the dying is lost in computer graphics, which we all know are not real. This disconnect, between computer graphics and reality is what makes death laughable.
A few months ago there was a minister at a local church who was also the youth pastor, who proudly described the paint-ball outing they were going to have as a way of teaching teamwork to the kids.
Paint-ball is a game where each ”player” gets a handgun with paintballs for ammunition that the “player” is supposed to aim at another “player” and shoot them with a paintball. There are all sorts of obstacles and barriers to hide behind and teams are made up to “fight” another team. What is missing from this “game” is the fact that you have one human being firing a weapon at another human being with the object to kill that other human being.
No wonder the kids laugh at dying!
Somewhere along the way I misplaced the biblical disconnect between, “Thou shalt not kill” but only in paintball.
I wrote to the church, and any member whose name and address I could find, about my feelings about this planned activity and got zero response.
Is it any wonder that death is only a laughing matter?
I own guns and have owned guns for over 50 years although I am not a hunter. My children all know the difference between real death and playing at dying.
posted by Michael at
12:02:00 AM
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