Speerstra & Anderson — It Takes Courage to Face Finality
In The Denial of Death,
Ernest Becker regarded the struggle we have
with being finite as the human problem.
Becker maintained that there is a natural and inevitable urge
to resist being fenced in;
we deny death and rail against our limits.
“The prison of one’s character,” Becker observed,
“is painstakingly built to deny one thing and one thing alone:
one’s creatureliness.”
Avoiding signs of an illness,
resisting a trip to the doctor when one does not feel well,
seeking to make ourselves seem powerful
even at the expense of others,
or engaging in heroic efforts to prolong life
when we are irreversibly or gravely ill
are all signs of our anxiety in the face of our human finitude.
Sometimes the negative behavior
that comes from the inability to tolerate finitude
exaggerates our suffering.
Beginnings and endings shape us and give us character.
Even so, it takes courage to face finality.
Karen Speerstra, Herbert Anderson
The Divine Art of Dying: How to Live Well While Dying