Are you ready for something heavy? Read WBUR's Common Health article by Carey Goldberg, How Unconscious Fear Of Death May Skew Your Judgment — In Life And 2016 Politics. Psychologists have gathered data on the methods most humans use to effectively quiet thoughts of death enough to function in their daily lives. They also investigated how reminders of death can affect people's judgement and behavior. Here's one of their findings:
"Even fleeting and indirect reminders of death can have a profound difference. Whenever people are reminded of death, they love people who share their beliefs and they hate people who are different."
My first thought: If even subtle reminders of death change behavior, then we shouldn't be surprised that terrorist attacks, such as in Brussels, and Trump's repetitive fear mongering tweets are causing division and astonishing results in the primary voting booths.
My second thought: What kind of daily messages am I getting from my obsessive reference to my battered volume of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die?
Is the reminder of death on the cover of this book drawing me toward humans that share my love of books and causing me to dislike, even hate, those who would rather watch a reality show than pick up a good novel?
I don't like that conclusion.
Let's keep reading Goldberg's article.
There's got to be some other insights.
Luckily, there are.
The psychologists also state:
"the way that human beings come to terms with the potentially debilitating existential terror that’s engendered by the awareness of death is to embed ourselves in culturally constructed beliefs about the nature of reality. What culture does is to give us a sense that life is meaningful and that we’re valuable. It tells us where we came from, it tells us what we’re supposed to do while we’re alive. It gives us some hope of immortality in the hereafter, either literally ..or symbolically. We may know we’re not going to be here forever but we’re still comforted by the fact that some vestige of of our existence will persist nevertheless — perhaps by having children, or by amassing great fortunes, or by doing something noteworthy in the arts or sciences."
Or perhaps by reading 1001 books before we die? While time spent in human interactions are by far the most life-defining and gratifying, reading literature can increase our empathy, creativity and our ability to focus. I am not on track to achieve immortality by creating something "noteworthy in the arts" but reading these beautiful works by others reinforces my excitement for life in a world where every individual has a unique mind, their own reality, and valuable stories to share.
Is it morbid - or just human - to also admit that I am comforted by the fact that I will leave behind one very thick book filled with hundreds, hopefully even 1001, pink highlighted titles of the books I read? My family would never throw that book out...would they? Prepare to be haunted.