Noooo, not the PIT!
:o
It seems to me that there is another, even more fundamental reason that we’re sad at funerals that goes deeper than simply knowing we’ll never see someone again.
A funeral reminds us that it could indeed be us in that casket–in fact, one day it certainly will be.
And even though some of us have “come to terms,” as it were, with the idea of death (so that we no longer dread it), we still attempt to avoid it. None of us, at least of those that are mentally healthy, are indifferent to the idea of dying. We don’t want to do it. We know we have to eventually, but if possible, not today. Natural selection has bred this deeply into all species, of course, even those that cannot “think” about death as we can.
We don’t even particularly like to think about death, but funerals have a way of forcing the issue on us.
I don’t think that holds universally true.
My cousin and my grandfather’s (relatively) recent funerals never brought up that thought (consciously). A lot of memories and missing them, though. A lot of projecting their deaths on my other family members and being pre-sad for their future deaths. Maybe it reminds us that life is fragile and all the people we know and love can be gone in an instant. Just one horrible phone call.
Never said it had to be conscious. On the other hand, I can’t prove my assertion either–but it seems to me to fit the facts.
I think you have here a rather unique approach. It would never cross my mind to reason like that.
I am aware of death waiting for me and for others every day of my life but this has nothing to do with “being afraid of death”. It is the result to see people I loved dying which started when I was not much older then a baby. In the next 27 years and up to this day, 11 other people I loved and who were very closely part of my life died. (Needless to say that I would like to receive a break in mourning.)
Frankly, I would not mind it a bit if it was today. I’m now in a mindset that I would welcome this. Yet I am worried that this would do to my children what the death of my parents did to me. That is then a very good reason to see it postponed until they are adults and can deal better with such a loss.
Yes, that is a point, but I look at this a bit different.
Funerals force the issue on us that you are still alive while so many you love are dead. It makes you question why that is. I came years ago to the conclusion that I always seem to be the survivor with no visible reason at all, so I suspect it must be because that has a reason for God. Which has a command in it to make the best possible of my life for as long as it continues.
(And I still have no idea what the OP’s question is about.)
Salaam. A
Can’t speak for other religions, but the Roman Catholic funeral ritual is the Mass of the Resurrection. It is, sort of, a celebration, not a sad thing (of course, many of the people at the Mass will be sad because it’s just human nature to miss people). But the Mass celebrates the soul beginning its journey to Heaven and the vision of God. Sure, there may be a stop in Purgatory for a while along the way, but that’s just part of the process.