Anatomy of mourning.

Why do we stop at our tracks ,draw in a deep breath , become thoughtful and at times feel our eyes prick with unintended tears and our body tremble at the receipt of news of the death of some one we know and care?

To answer this what I am adducing could be quite blunt .We are actually mourning at our own mortality! An untimely death always shakes up one because in the hustle and bustle of life ,chasing sunrise after sunrise and the illusion of life stretching to eternity unhindered and uncontrolled ,we are suddenly jerked into the awareness though fleeting that if death can take away our friends and relatives it could also take us away .One also mourns the fact that whilst the dead lose their memory the living don't.The person dying before us has beaten us in the game of who is going to be burdened with whose memory for some more time to come..

One can control the entire world and all that lives there as well as tame wild rivers , breakdown mountains and make living pleasurable with strength ,might , wealth and ideas. All under control!But death is one thing that defies control and is simply beyond it.

Even earth quake could be predicted in future and be tackled .In some case like disease, death is predicted but can it ever be tackled?

When a person very close to oneself dies the mourning is something deeper . One also dies with that person and one can't mourn over one's own death , can one?

Now why do some make it a point to attend each and every funeral ,come what may?May be to pay respects but I suspect a deeper motive .It is a assurance to self , a self gloating ,"Ha I have once again escaped death . I have tricked it .Life flows energetically in my veins whilst that stupid poor bloke has stemmed it or has been made to stem it.I am only 40, 60 [or even 80]and I still have several decades to go."

The more well known and famous the deceased is more is the initial shock.Why? with all his leadership qualities , wealth and brains ,he has been whisked away , what about us insignificant creatures? What chance do we stand?

Mourning can be due to loss of emotional crutch or the loss of financial security. It could also be due to loss of social contact even if it is the sole society of an enemy.Won't a person marooned in some god forsaken place say a hot or cold desert or in a island middle of nowhere gladly welcome the company of even a scorpion or viper or the polar bear even though in his normal life he may abhor their society unlike a zoologist or entomologist or one of those animal channel gladiators?Though vicious ,they are nevertheless the personification of' life' and company of any life how so ever mean and deadly is better than no company at all. He would mourn the death of any of those creatures. I am sure.

In the final analysis when we are said to be mourning over some body's death , we are actually mourning over our own frailty,[howsoever powerful, brainy or wealthy one may be] our inability to ward of that finality , an alarm clock ringing to wake us up from our stupor , though fleetingly, tearing the veil , that our days of indulgence of our senses, the mainstay behind living can be squashed at any time ruthlessly by a emotionless force, which is simply beyond our control.