Nobody Wants to Die

A radio performer writing in a diocesan bulletin gives us her thoughts on death. She does a lot of traveling and during her night trips which she takes often there is one person she remembers. He is the author of the well-known, The Little Prince--Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

He studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts and became an aviator. In his bestseller The Little Prince, he did his own illustrations. The book quickly received the love of many in the different cultures of the world. His image was on the French 50 franc paper currency indicating the respect and love he received from the French people. In 1944 on a flight over the Mediterranean he disappeared.

When the writer was in her twenties she was sorry seeing that he died so young but since he mysteriously died similar to the way the Little Prince exited from the narrative she found this charming. Like the stars in a desert that keep on moving they both returned to the stars....


However, a few years later on a night trip to South Africa, her thinking changed. She no longer considered Saint-Exupery's death something beautiful but painful and lonely: leaving this world in deep darkness and alone.
 
She believes these thoughts on death come to her now because of age. She was talking to her friend about the blessings of death. Her friend is ready for death if it comes in her sleep. She is prepared for it now or if it comes in 10 years she will welcome death.
 
The writer, however, is not so open about the situation. We are all afraid of death. We all have to experience death for the first time and bribes don't work. Just a few weeks ago while in bed she had an excruciating headache that prompted her to even think of calling 119 (emergency telephone number). While in that condition she was overcome with drowsiness. She asks the readers if they could imagine what was going through her head at that time.
 
She didn't want to go to sleep for she feared that she would die in her sleep. She couldn't help but laugh at her thoughts. She hadn't written her will and wasn't ready to die. She got up the next morning with the sun and gratitude in her heart.
 
She remembers a French popular song from the 1980s: 'Tout le mond veut aller au ciel mais personne ne veut mourir."  Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.