The Year of the Macabre

I have never felt death so personally and as closely as I have this year. On a personal level, and also on a wider level, death seems to be everywhere. It is almost normal this year to see the calm visage of dead people as they are prepared for delivery to the next world. Sometimes the bodies have not been so horribly damaged, other times it is terrible to even grasp what has happened to the unfortunate soul. But perhaps more worrying have been the videos I have seen of people who have not yet died, but have suffered injuries so horrific that you would wish them a quick and painless death. Whilst this grotesque orgy of violence that we are presented with has shocked me, it has also made me feel much more stoic about life in general. In retrospect, I feel that an adolescent rebellious streak within me has died. Maybe this is because, with the inevitable death of our elders, we become more conscious of our own mortality, and of our small place in this world.

On another note, has anybody else noticed how it seems to always rain after there has been a lot of death? I don't expect or want an answer. I'm just wishing myself to believe that this cold universe cares when we feel sad.