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I was reading "Labyrinth of Solitude" by Octavio Paz today and I found this quote, I like it alot and thought I would share.

Death defines life; a death depicts a life in immutable forms; we do not change except to disappear. Our deaths illuminate our lives. If our deaths lack meaning, our lives also lacked it. Therefore we are apt to say, when somebody has died a violent death, "He got what he was looking for." Each of us dies the death he is looking for, the death he has made for himself. A christian death or a dog's death are ways of dying that reflect ways of living. If death betrays us and we die badly, everyone laments the fact, because we should die as we have lived. Death, like life, is not transferable. If we do not die as we have lived, it is because the life we lived was not ours: it did not belong to us, just as the bad death that kills us does not belong to us. Tell me how you die, and I will tell you who you are.
~J

I like it.

Here is one I really like; written by Rilke (1875-1926):

"We should not be afraid that our strength is insufficient to endure any experience of death, even the closest and most terrifying death is not beyond our strength; it is the measuring line at the vessel's brim: we are full whenever we reach it... We should live life so generously, so without calculation and selection, that we involuntarily continue to include, and to love, death too (life's inverted side);... like the moon, surely life has a side permanently turned away from us which is not its opposite but its counterpart towards completion, towards wholeness, towards the actual perfect and full sphere and globe of being."

 

"Death is mother nature's way of telling you to slow down!"

Death is mother nature's way of telling you, "3...2...1...C-ya! "

This is my 0.02, I plan to be in the sport in a while so I'm preapred for the fact something 'may' happen out of my control.

-The only two things in life we are completely certain about, is that there was a day we were born, and will be a day that we die. No one lives forever. If such a tragedy would ever to occur, I could only hope others who knew me would understand this is the way I woulda have preferred to go out. If my destiny is to go out at 80-90+ years old deteriorating in a nursing home, y that point I would only be content knowing that I made the most of out life, maybe be remembered for it, and know that never let anything pass me by.

I apologize for any negativity in the above. Just my personal feelings over the subject.

Hello,
This is not a new topic.
I think "Tell me how you die, and I will tell you who you are" is complete crap.
If I get any input on the matter, I will die in my sleep at 75 years of age.
Will that at all define how I got there, ie: Avery was a layabout?

Furthermore, though I do love BASE jumping,
you can be sure that if I notice myself going in to death,
I'll be cursing this rotten obsession all the way to the dirt.

Honestly, I don't think we have any concept of what dead will be like.
God knows.

I recently heard an idea about death that I do like;
"it sure does seem to eliminate a lot of options".
Avery

In out little corner of the death market I too gag when I hear, "they died doing what they loved." It's a comfort thought expressed by those left behind and believe me, the deceased, in their last seconds are cursing the day they ever saw a parachute . . .

NickD
BASE 194

"They died doing what the loved." Wrong!

"They lived doing what they loved." Right!

You should not care what other people think about your life when you are dead but what you think about your life when you are alive.

Leopold! Leopold!

Well put.

>>This is not a new topic.
I think "Tell me how you die, and I will tell you who you are" is complete crap.
If I get any input on the matter, I will die in my sleep at 75 years of age.
Will that at all define how I got there, ie: Avery was a layabout?

~ I don't think Paz meant for this to be an all inclusive, literal statement (It is also a translation from spanish). I took this quote from an essay where Paz is showing how Mexican/South American cultures differ in their relationship with death,and the way they deal with death. While North Americans will avoid talking about death as much as possible, in Mexico death is present in celebrations (day of the dead), songs, proverbs... death is mocked just as life is poked fun at.
I think it is more a statement that is meant to give confidence to the decisions you make in life,and is meant to be read within the context of the entire quote.
>>"He died doing what he loved"
~I agree, it sucks,however; How would you like your death to be explained to those who care about you, but can't really understand why you do what you do, in the result or your untimely demise? More honestly? ..."It seemed like a good idea at the time" ? maybe "Sure i knew I might die, but if I really thought it would happen to me I never would have gotten myself into this mess" ?
"He died doing what he loved", is like...
"He's in a better place now"....(6feet of dirt?)
"He died for his country"....
(Here's one we'll hopefully be able so say about Avery when we hear he's passed in his sleep at 75 ) "He lived a full life"
These are all statements meant to console the living, and give the confidence to keep doing what you enjoy/ believe in. The first few times i hurt myself, and could have easily died, doing things I love; the things that make my life worth living, I swore I would never do them again. (Motorcycles, drinking, parachutes...) but refraining from enjoying my life made me feel stagnant, tired,...depressed. Fuck that!
OK here's a better quote: "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear."
~J

ooooohhh and there it is.... my new sigline. Thx :)

the google ad at the top of the page was for OBITUARIES 1970-present day. Thats priceless.

"They died doing what they loved", is improper because it infers that the action that killed them is part of the action that they loved.

I prefer not to correlate the act of death as a part of any action but instead as an accident that may occur for any action.

"They died in an accident doing what they loved", is better.

It is just grammer but grammer can make the difference on how people view things in their concious and subconcious. This is just my thought, bound to change over time and expierience.

Well said! I totally agree with this statement.......

This is a priceless quote. When I nearly died on a jump, I remember feeling like a complete terrified idiot right before impact. It was embarrassing. While in the hospital, I still vowed to not regret it though, since if I regreted it, it means I never understood the risks. And to me, I enjoyed the jump prior to things going poorly, and I'm glad I got something out of it, unlike a car crash.