Entropy

[ailbhe]

We must find a magician, now. A magician with a spell, who knows a spell, who can go to spell lessons. The spell must stop Death. It must stop the bad winds that go around and around. It must stop earthquakes and the Hunters who hunt. It must stop people from dying and bring back the dead. It must stop hunger, and not having enough money for food. It must stop diseases that kill and sharp things that wound. It must stop the bad things and there must only be good things on the Earth. It must stop the cutting down of the rainforests and the spoiling of animals' homes. It must stop it, it must stop to all, it must stop it now, and there must be no more Death.

So that babies can continue to be born, it must make the Earth larger, and the Sun larger, and further away - the sky and space go on forever, so there will be room for a larger World. And there must be no more Death.

Heaven is not good enough. She doesn't want to die. She wants to stay here forever. She wants all the people to stay here. She wants to meet them, the dead people - we must bring them back. She doesn't want to die when she's old. She wants to stop the tiredness of old people so that they don't want to die either. She wants to bring them back.

And there must be no more Death.

Comments

[helenic]

As soon as she's old enough, she should read Accelerando. Stross' posthumanist vision fits this bill remarkably well.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. *wince* Poor dear.

No death means nothing eats...not even vegans. No death means no more beautiful fall foliage.

I know someone in LJ-land (tacit, do you know him?) who is big on the refuting death through science type stuff. (I'm summarizing badly, but it's not something I'm familiar enough with to be conversant about.)

It will take time, if it's possible at all. Even magicians have their limits. I'm so sorry.

[ailbhe]

I kinda don't want to bring the food thing into it until she's a lot calmer about it, because it would really be uncomfortable to have her turn vegetarian right now; if I eat vegetarian while pregnant or breastfeeding I get really ill.

I did think I was getting somewhere with explaining that people are living for longer and longer all the time, but I'm not sure...

She's right, though. I mean, what she wants is a totally reasonable and understandable thing to want.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

re: not getting into the food thing. Yeah.

Utterly understandable, and...aiee. Poor mama. Poor lil' darlin'.

[heraldis.livejournal.com]

Poor you, poor her :(

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Aw, I wish I had something to say, to help you or her.

My mother died when I was a baby (18 mos) and I grew up knowing that, that death is always close by. I was raised to think that "heaven" was all around us, that if we had the right kind of eyes, we could see it. When I was Linnea's age, I thought that sometimes I could.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Sending huge hugs...

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

Sympathy to both of you.

Somehow this post consoles me, though, because my five-year-old is very upset about death at the moment. Lying in bed at night, he shouts, "Mummy, I don't want to die!" and he asks about it endlessly during the day. Nothing I say seems to relieve his fears and I can't shake the feeling that if I could only say the Right Thing to him, I could put his mind at rest. Only whatever the right thing is, I haven't found it yet.

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually 'get' Death until I was diagnosed with my heart condition. I had one point shortly after they'd diagnosed it, before we had treatment sorted out, where I had to have Darrell drive me back from Uni in Brum to my Dad's, setting off at about 11pm. Two hours later I was at home with my Dad getting hugs and basically sobbing and going 'I'm going to die!'.

I don't remember talking about death or really considering it as a concept when I was little. I think I knew it happened, and I just sort of accepted it. It was sad when I couldn't see people any more because they had died, but for my early years, it wasn't anyone close enough to me to for it to have been anything very different to not being able to see them because they'd moved to Australia, for example.

Possibly I lack the imagination and introspection to have deeply considered this one.