Eschatology 251/4

Today I did one of the scariest things a person can ever do. No, not a bungie jump. No, not a speech before a bunch of strangers (you always can imagine the various states of their bladders. Heh.) No, not even a prostate examination, fearful as it is.

I'm talking about going to talk to an estate lawyer about a will.

EEEEEeeeeeEEEEEeeee! Pant pant pant. Yikes! Yikes! Yikes! Pant, pant.

OK, I think I'm ready to contine

Let's face it, thinking about one's death is bad enough. But thinking about how you might deal with things from the damn grave is, well, ghostly. Ugly. In a very real, out-of-the-grave way, unholy. (Out of the hole, so to speak.) Or, one might say, worm-holy.

Anyway, I visited a nice man named Dale Reagor who knows Montana law on "ISSUES OF DEATH" backward and forward. We discussed a bunch of options, and I expect a draft will in a couple of weeks, together with a medical power of attorney document, and some such stuff. EEEEeee(slap!) (That was the sound of my hand across my mouth.)

All this is a joke, of course. To not do a will, especially at my age, would be an extrordinarily selfish thing.

But the whole "will" thing raises, among many other issues, the question of whether other animals sense impending death ... or is it just humans who really get it when the end comes near? I've been reading this week about the extent to which other animals can do language. But hey, isn't it language that enables foolish thoughts about things like religion and an afterlife? Or are such thoughts somehow extra-linguistic? In any event, are animals better off without it? Is language, which throughout our lives is such an important part of our existance, at the end of life just an enabler of self-deception?

And therefore, in the end, should we become mute to be smart, or at least not dumb?

I don't think so. But I think this is an interesting take on a rather age-old question - a question that has been discussed over thousands of years by folks a lot smarter than me. Therefore, I should shut up. Right?

But then, there's this will thing.