Heh. Why do you think he posted? (Off-Topic)

by SonofMacPhisto , Wednesday, December 28, 2016, 16:14 (2676 days ago) @ BeardFade

I'm interested in helping people see a bigger picture than the pain directly in front of them.

Fair enough.

No where did I say that the many deaths of household names in 2016 shouldn't upset you. I suggested that the correlation between the rise of household names and the increase of those people dying is a symptom of mathematics. It is not a reason to label 2016 as the worst. 2016 is not the culprit, it is an arbitrary measure of time. The limits of human aging, mortality, and culture are who to get upset at. And I suggested that if you're going to be mad at 2016, it's only going to get worse.

It's not just that all people die, it's also that as a species, we die at a relatively standard rate. Assuming you outlived infancy (which was a real problem for much of human history), human beings have been living to their 70s for most of human existence (src. Dr. Christopher Ryan, Sex at Dawn, p.200-201). Even biblically, Psalm 90 describes the average lifespan as 70-80 years old. The best known icons, celebrities, heroes, etc, are all getting into the range where death is more/most likely. In order to have fewer icons die, we'll need a demographic trough of icons "created" and then wait the 30-40 years for the lack of deaths to occur. Right now we're living through the demographic boom of the Baby Boomers and the icons created in that time. It's going to be rough.

Any tact involving "mathematics" isn't that great when you're trying to help people deal with pain; especially pain involving death. I hope you never did this when you were a pastor.

Once again, let me reiterate. I really am sorry I upset you. I wasn't specifically targeting you (or any of you). I wasn't going on the attack, I was trying to add a conversation in parallel.

Starting a parallel conversation? Then why did you fly in fully expecting flak? I'm pulling the trigger on the guns because I think you're missing a huge point here: don't tell people how to deal with death in the midst of their grieving. Ever. Help them deal with it in their own way as ridiculous as it may be to you or anyone else. Next time, try this:

"I'm sorry you're hurting. Can I help?"