Between Death and Dying

Dying and death are inevitable to all living beings. Everyone who is born will one day die, and there are fewer things in life that are more certain and final than death. Despite such certainty, death and dying are shrouded in mystery-as much because of the practical fact that no one knows what happens after we die, and because so many of us go to great lengths to avoid thinking about death at all. The inevitability of death and dying is matched, perhaps, only by the strength of the taboo they have been ascribed. However, despite and perhaps because of that forbidden nature, there are communities that wish to build more intimacy with death and dying so as to depotentiate the pervasive fear of the unknown from which no one can ultimately hide. This desire for a deeper relationship can be seen in the proliferation of training programs for death doulas, the materialization of death cafés, and an abundance of literature about death and dying from academic and practitioner sources.