Death is inevitable, but can we control the fear of it?

“I found I was absolutely, completely at ease about death,” and “I’m going to live again.” Those were the words of

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States who died recently

at the age of 100. In his long life, he had thought much about death, written about it in books, and discoursed about it in speeches and in correspondence with others. His views were shaped by his own life experience which saw the death of many of his closest family members, including his wife and all his younger siblings, and an advanced old age beset with various health problems, including a cancer that had spread to his brain; and buttressed by his longstanding steadfast Christian faith. 

As much as we would admire him for his humanitarian achievements in the public sphere, we could also envy him for his equanimity towards death. Most of us would lack his calmness. More likely, we’d be inflicted with that fear of our death which sticks to us like a shadow showing itself on and off.