Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee

So i don't know how many of you get the Washington Post, or how many out of those who do get the post read the Washington Post Magazine on Sundays, but when i'm home i like to read the newspaper in particularly the comics and the magazine which comes every sunday. Well this Sunday the main article was titled "Lives to Remember" and it was the life stories of 11 people who died in 2008 who are local to the area. These people are not famous or well known, in fact they are relatively unknown. But the lives they lived were extraordinary.

One man was a CIA agent in Russia during the Cold War, another a 22 year old girl who was determined to have a real wedding before losing her life to liver cancer 33 days later, yet another was a civil rights activist. So many incredible stories about the lives of the unknown. However the one that was the most interesting to me was about a doctor who worked at the Lorton Prison.
I live near the lorton prison, and my highschool was built on the property after the prison closed down. I was even lucky enough to go inside on a photography field trip before they started tearing down/renovating the facility to make it an Arts Center. It was an incredible experience that i'll never forget. So anyway this man was a doctor with a private practice who worked nights at the prison as their pysician. The story was all about how he truly cared for all of his patients, even "sugar bear" an inmate who the rest of the staff was terrified of. He could've been making the big bucks in a huge private practice and instead he kept it small, caring about local residents and the "scum of the earth" inmates. And that really touched me. And at his funeral, countless patients and former inmates showed up to pay their respects. He truly made a difference in so many lives and was loved by everyone. That's the kind of life i want to live.

And then this past weekend i also saw the movie The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (by the way it's REALLY long and i still haven't really decided if i liked it or not) and it got me thinking about death. The basic plot of the movie is this man Benjamin who is born old, and gets younger as he ages. So when he's 7 years old his body is that of an 80 year old man, and by the time he dies he's a baby. But at the beggining of the movie, they're not sure how much time he has to live, and someone asks him if he's scared to die and he just says "I'm not really scared, just curious. There's nothing wrong with old age. "

Curious.

And this got me thinking about life and death. Everyone talks about living a fulfilling life, making money, being happy, having a family, whatever. But you never know when you're time is going to come. It could be tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, 5 years from now, ANYTIME. I'm not preaching "our time here is short" because we all know this and it's very cliche. My point is that our time on earth is uncertain. Death does not discriminate. We all die. It is one thing that all humans have in common.
Alot of people are scared of death. I used to be one of them. And i think i was afraid because it's the unknown. Everyone has a belief about what happens to you when you die, whether its heaven or hell or reincarnation or fertilizer for a tree or whatever. But no one knows what ACTUALLY happens and that's why people are afraid. They're also afraid because they're worried they won't accomplish everything they wanted to. That they'll never start a successful business or be famous or become a CEO of a major corporation or publish a book or some big goal. But this article/movie got me thinking that even ordinary people live extraordinary lives. And while it might not be big and well known and glamorous, it doesn't make ones life less valuable than another persons.
So now i've decided that i'm not AFRAID of dying, because it's going to happen no matter what. And in the end i have no control over it. But i am extremely CURIOUS as to what death/dying is like. And i don't want to know ahead of time what it's going to be like. I want it to be an adventure, a new page. An epilogue.

Value what you have now. Pursue your dreams and live your life because you are not less valuable just because you're not on TV. It is the everyday people that lead the most impressive lives.