Rethinking the Shadow of Death

Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
William Wallace

It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.
Jonathan Swift

Death. Let’s face it—the word itself can bring us down. For adolescents, the concept of death and dying is one that can cause feelings of dread and foreboding. Yet every student will eventually have to face the cold, hard fact of human mortality, whether through a friend, a family member, or an acquaintance. When someone near to us dies, it shakes our world and forces us to take a personal inventory of our own lives. The minions of the enemy—fear, isolation, defeat, despair, and depression—smell blood in the water and begin to encircle the student who has been dealt one of life’s most severe blows. In the next few posts, we will examine the concept of death and dying, and how to guide and fight for students through the grieving process, by sifting through the words of Homer as he describes Odysseus’s journey through Hades.