The good die young, rebels challenge death

Last week, Cabrini lost one of the members of the Glass of 2005 to cancer. Along with that loss, Dana Reeves passed away. With the recent deaths of these two people, it makes a person think how precious and short life really is.

·some people really take advantage of life and live every moment to the fullest. But what does it really mean to live life to the fullest? Some people think that it means jumping out of an airplane, traveling around the world, experimenting with drugs or amassing material possessions.

Our society seems to appreciate life more when it is ending than when people are thriving. If you think about it, whenever someone good dies, the media praises this person and all of the good deeds they did. That's not a bad thing; a ·good person should be praised for the work they did when they were with us. But shouldn't we try to praise this person for their good deeds when they were alive, rather than after they are gone?

The death of a loved one brings people together; it makes them all appreciate what they have now.

Other people experience a death and challenge it. By doing drugs, some people think that they are cheating death by getting away with it. Whippets, a trend that is making a comeback, is a fonn of getting high, but the consequences can be deadly. More active people will go skydiving or jump a car or a bike over a canyon to prove that they are not afraid of death.

Then there are people who have never touched a drug a day in their life and have never challenged death, but they seem to be the ones losing their lives too early as well.

When someone dies who lived their life just like any other ordinary person, we ask the question, why? What did they do to deserve this?

Everyone tries to understand death, why it happens and why it happens to a specific person. It's the circle of life we continuously try to understand, but we are always left confused or stunned.

We have so many cosmetic products and medications to make someone look younger or diets to be on to make ~omeone live longer. But in the end, nature ultimately seems to control who lives or who dies. People who exercise daily and eat healthy have died of heart attacks or diseases. So trying to prevent death does not seem to work either.

Maybe we need to stop and look at everything and everyone around us to really live life to the fullest. Whether it is taking a little bit longer to watch the sun set, talking to someone you nonnally would not or appreciating friendships and families, we have needs to find ways to appreciate the present.

Instead of waiting until someone passes away to praise their life, maybe we should all praise one another for what we do now, no matter how big or small it may be, because we cannot control this mysterious circle of life.

This issue of the Loquitur is dedicated to: