You're not getting out alive

No one is getting out of this life alive. This axiom states a truth so bright and clear that it's hard to look at for very long. What do we mean by all the negative emotions associated with, surrounding, accompanying death? Every single person killed in every war ever fought would have died sooner or later. Do we mean that it is tragic that some part of their life was unlived? How so? There were no promises of certain longevity made or accepted between the mote of consciousness I call myself and whatever, whoever else may be out there. Is it possible that the chain of cause and effect working certainly, and ceaselessly leads inexorably to the exact amount of life each person gets? This is a bleak prospect. I'm not really a fan of a purely mechanistic view of the cosmos. I like the idea of choice. This sheds light on our conundrum. Maybe what we mean by the word tragedy is the end of choices.

From my religious viewpoint that seems true. That all the good and great together with all the mean and reprehensible are kaleidoscopically meaningless absent a single choice. As Jesus put it to Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" The answer to this question is the narrow gate, the steep and narrow way, the eye of the needle or it is the wide and comfortable way that ends in the tragic end of choice. Choosing not to choose is a choice, but choosing to rest my entire weight upon the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ removes the fear of the end and replaces it with the expectation of eternity.