Many years ago, Ernest Becker wrote a monumental book called The Denial of Death. He said that people in one culture refuse to confront the reality of death. Let me give you an illustration. How many of you have a will, a power of attorney for health use or a living will? Probably not many of you and do you know why? Because, we do not want to think about death.
Similarly, we also fear the full experience of life. We enjoy life as long as it is filled with beauty and pleasure, but part of life is pain - our own pain and the pain of others. We do not want to deal with that. When someone cries, we say, "Don't cry." Their tears may be cleansing for them, but we don't know how to handle it.
The sooner we stop running from the realities of life and death, the sooner we become mature people.
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