The night was clear and silent. A simple stillness lingered carefully in the air. It found its way, slowly towards the shadow of the old man. Then it crawled up and struck his heart. The old man felt its homecoming, and acknowledged, with a sigh. Yes. Silence. Such simple... silence.

Sudden footsteps interrupted the stillness. A young man strode up towards the old man. The latter spun around and did not manage hide his surprise in time.

"Ryan?"

The young man glanced calmly at the tombstone and responded, "I came to pay my respects."

The old man looked back towards the tombstone, and then nodded quietly. Turning back to face Ryan, he spoke, "I always thought you weren't one that follow traditions."

Without taking his eyes off the tombstone, Ryan replied almost immediately, "But death is different. It’s a tradition that transcends all cultures, all races, all ideologies... every idiot has to die some day."

"Everyone knows that they will. Yet, when the moment happens, it just seems so..."

Ryan narrowed his eyes and snapped, "Everyone is a natural optimist, really. Life sucks, and everyone still wants it."

"That's why we learn from history..."

"The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history."

The old man glanced carefully from the tombstone to Ryan, and then decided that there was no point to retort.

Silence was welcomed back into the atmosphere once again, but it was banished after an instance when the old man started, "Offer the Joint Sticks, Ryan."

Without a reasonable interval of considering, Ryan shook his head.

"Ryan... must logic and reason always be over love for you?"

"Love controls logic and reason. But in the first place, I see no way the action relates to love. For who's sake am I doing it?"

"Ryan... Please."

"It's not about love... that's bullshit. You know it."

"Do it for me then. Let it be for my sake."

Ryan savoured his final look at the tombstone and then turned and started to walk away, "No. I still see no point."

The old man watched Ryan's last footsteps and when he was finally gone, he looked back at the tombstone and sighed. The silence was not simple, anymore.


---- Do you Fear Death?
A stupid question maybe.
No matter whatever person you are.
Perhaps its a matter not really talked about by people, and when it is mentioned, the topic get dragged down to become religious, new-agative, or somewhere along those lines. When death is concenred, existance is questioned. When existance is questioned, natures are pondered upon. And death has been dealt out by many as just another occurance that happens. Of course there are fears. Fears that matter, and fears that don't really.

Fear of the Pain that Comes with it
Humans hate pain, (ignore the exceptions) and the consequence of physical pain is ultimately death. Many have considered death to be better, compared to living in pain, because its assumed when death occurs, the pain ends. Suffering ends. Everything ends. But before death, there is pain. And not only the physical pain, that in itself is understandable to fear and shun. There is the emotional baggage of pain that arrives with death as well. Perhaps a split second to one's destruction would display a flash of worry to his/her loved ones, a concern to whether or not they would be able to cope. And then to his assets and property -- What would be done? What can be done, when one is gone?

Fear of Losing
The two-way standard of love ensures this. Shadow in Final Fantasy 6 had decided to kill his emotions for the sake of becoming a better ninja. Also, to forget all that had happened to him. People who don't mind dying usually have nothing to lose. And that means, no emotional bagge to engulf you in worry, no physical treshole that barrs you from wanting to bail out. When life has no more meaning, when you got nothing to live for anymore, why carry on to live? Yet, almost everybody has a cause, a necessity, a meaning, to carry on in life. (It might not be even a complicated meaning.) Do you think you live for yourself? Your own pleasures? Your necessities and indulgences? A tough swim. You need to cling onto something to find that sense of fear to lose. Or fear of 'lostness' in itself would be able to drown you very simply.
Yes, humans are that weak. We cling. What tree to choose, how one chooses to cling upon it... Its up to you to see how much that matters.

Fear of an Afterlife
The more 'intellectual' fear. Or perhaps the more foolish one. Either way, this is soley because of uncertainty. Not to say absolute certainty is good, terrorists are enough an example. But how many times has one actually asked 'what happens after you die?'. Just because science can't answer, life doesn't tell you and religions look cheesy, doesn't mean the question doesn't need to be answered ( - _ - ) . And when life has so much stuff to distract you from it, it doesn't imply that you should stop being curious. FEAR it. Don't you? Do you know where are you going after you die? Some say its no use to talk about this stuff because, very simply, you know what happens when you die. So, yeah, go ignore everything and see what happens then, why not.


Life occurs. Death occurs.
Laugther. Crying.
Joy. Remorse.
Living. Dying.
Pain.

"Do you know, why the silence was so simple?"

---

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