As I wrote on my initial thoughts post, death is a topic that is almost never discussed in my family, only when someone that we knew died or if someone famous had passed away. And whenever the topic of death was brought up, it was only talked about for an insignificant amount of time so needless to say, when I sat down to interview my mother, it was a bit awkward. My uncle, my second interviewee, however, has always been an open person with everything so his interview was drastically better than my mom’s interview. The good thing about choosing my mom and my uncle in particular for this interview was that my mom is a highly religious person while my uncle is an atheist so I got to hear from people of two different perspectives. Another reason why I my choice of interviewees was outstanding was because they both have the same cultural background but one, my uncle, was more influenced by American culture than the other.
I started my interview by asking both my mom and uncle the same question I asked my peers, “What are your initial thoughts on death?” My mom‘s answer was just what I had expected it to be; “It is just another stage in life. Our souls are just visiting this world, and we all must depart one day. What we do here however, is a test. And all that will happen to us after death, will be just the results of our test.” When asked what methods of taking care of the dead she is aware of, she answered with the cremation and burials. Everyone in my family, so far, has been buried since that is the common practice of Muslim people. I avoided asking her questions about funerals she had attended because I knew that the last one she attended was my grandmother’s or my mom’s mom. And I was pretty sure I knew how she felt during that funeral so I didn’t bother asking about it. When asked: “What should be done with the dead bodies when there’s a massive death toll?” She answered in a surprising way, “People should look at resolving the crisis instead of looking at moral beliefs and religious beliefs. If you do not have time or the man-power to figure out what everyone that died believed in, you don’t have to do it. Mass burials or even mass cremations should be executed.”
My uncles interview was a little weird because like I said before, we don’t talk about death as a dinner topic hence it gets a tad uncomfortable whenever it is brought up because it brings back sad memories. I only asked him two questions, the first one was: “What are your thoughts on dying and taking care of the dead?” and he gave me a 5 minute long speech. When I heard what he thought about death, I was literally astonished and a little hurt. He said that he did not believe in the whole grieving process and that he never has or never will shed a tear for a loved one. He doesn’t believe in saying goodbye because he just looks at the person’s death as something that’s just another part of life. His outlook on life has always been to live to the fullest and he has the same approach for death. He was recollecting his last experience with the death and that was of his colleague and friend. She had an untimely death by a car accident and my uncle did not attend the funeral. My uncle was one of his friend’s closest friends and him and the rest of the deceased’s closest friends all gathered up and went to the park and had a picnic because that is what their friend loved to do. My uncle said that if his friend had known that they were all sitting around her casket or urn wearing black and just being all sad, the friend would have been extremely upset and disappointed at them all. The friend had always influenced my uncle’s decisions and she continued to do it even in death. He says he would like to be remembered the same way he chose to remember his friend. My uncle’s favorite pass-time was to play Call of Duty with some friends and he told me that when he dies, I better not be sitting at a funeral crying, that I should be at home celebrating his life by playing Call of Duty. The second question was what would you like to be done to your remains and he answered with a completely straight and non quavering voice that he would like his body to be buried because he is a strong believer in the possibility of a zombie apocalypse.
There were many similarities and differences in my mom’s interview and my uncle’s interview. They both want to be buried but for different reasons and they both think that death is just another stage of life so we should stop fearing it. When people say I do not fear death, I am always a bit skeptical. Most common persons in the United States would when asked whether they feared death, they would just say; “no because it is just another part of life”. I think the people who say that are not afraid of death, they think that death is just another stage of life so we should stop fearing it. When people say I do not fear death, I am always a bit skeptical. Most common persons in the United States would when asked whether they feared death, they would just say; “no because it is just another part of life”. I think the people who say that are not afraid of death itself but just nonchalant about the idea of it. If someone truly thought about permanently ceasing to exist, then they would be pretty scared unless they believed in the afterlife then they should be scared because of all their wrong deeds in this tempting world.
My mom’s thoughts were the same as almost every religious person that is both Christian and/or Muslim in the United States. (The two religions really aren’t that different, if only they would just settle down and discuss, the world would be a much better place…) Although I liked her subjective thought on being afraid of death, I thought that was quite interesting since what I remember from Islam class in Syria, we are to fear death because after death, we will be punished for our sins and every man or woman alive has sinned. My uncle’s answers caught me off guard, I expected him to say things like that he would like to be cremated and have his friends around him when he died and to have his remains in a place where his friends and family would be able to visit them which I believe is the dominant social practice in the United States.
