Danse Macabre

            People, young and old, dance with death every day. Danse Macabre is a French phrase that means “Dance of death.”  This dance can be an all consuming waltz that embraces death in an obsessive or steady stride. The dance can just as likely, and most probably, consist of a tango in which the living partner consistently denies the existence of the undead dancing partner.  Many people, no matter where one lives on Earth would love nothing more than to forget that death will happen that death will occur to him or her. Throughout life, people try to do whatever possible to ignore death. Humans will promote health and wellness, mitigate negative aspects of aging, try to overcome gross stereotypes and may come to accept death as death creeps closer through the different stages in life, despite whichever culture the person lives in. 
                                Promoting Health and Wellness

          On American television, a typical person will witness two million commercials by the age of 65 (Herr, 2007). There is no denying that many of these commercials revolve around health, be it through a person’s physique or through prescription drug campaigns. America is the only country aside from New Zealand that permits pharmaceutical drugs commercials on television, and yet there is no difference between the life span of Americans from other countries (ProCon, 2012). All of this is an attempt to mitigate the negative effects of aging.

                               Mitigate Negative effects of Aging

            Aging is a natural process that a majority of Americans view with dread. Not only does age come with the deterioration of the body, but also the mind too. The visible and noticeable consequences that age brings to humanity often cause a person to seek ways to lessen the damage. Eating healthier, exercising both body and mind daily, promoting healthy habits, such as not smoking, and utilizing proper hygiene lessens naturally lessen negative aging effects. Aside from natural ways to influence aging, people often buy health care products, such as skin and wrinkle creams, and have plastic surgery to retain young beauty, rather than embrace the beauty that comes from aging.   
                              Ageism and Stereotypes

       Age should be something that a person embraces and takes pride in. Instead age has become a force of evil that comes with stereotypes galore. Ageism is stereotyping others because of a person’s age. This is the idea that some stereotypes exist only because of the age of the group in question. Ageism is a generalized, and often wrong, perception on people of certain age group, most notably the older generations.

                        Grumpy Old Men and Little Old Ladies

            People unwittingly teach younger generations unhealthy stereotypes about the older generations and often resort to using language degrading to older people. Two terms that the younger call the older are “grumpy old men” and “little old ladies.” These language conations have a lasting impact on how people view old age and what one stereotypically expects from the older generation. Terminology with negative influences to describe older people give the impression that the men are grumpy, hateful, aggressive, and overly stubborn and single-minded, whereas the women are docile, sweet tempered and may be a bit addle-brained. Research proves that these ideas are irrelevant and older generations are just as diverse as the younger. Sadly, language often can become a self-fulfilling prophesy to the point that older people believe the stereotypes about their generation and often think that he or she is the exception to the age group he or she belongs to  (Bearon, 2002). 
                      Different Lifespan Viewpoints of Death and Dying

             Most mortals suffer from a fear of dying at least once in his or life, regardless of age. How one copes with the arrival of his or her eventual demise can depend largely on the age of the person and the individual’s personality. No matter what age group a person is a part of, there is no denying that a person’s view of death and dying can change through his or her lifespan development. In many ways the idea of death and dying goes from thinking that it is a part of life one typically ignores to becoming something undeniable and even preferred. Depending on which age group one belongs to may shed understanding on what he or she thinks about death.

                        The Adolescent and Early Adulthood Viewpoint

            The dance of death at this point is unsure and so no rhythm as the living partner either has no care for the undead partner or is daring the partner to take control. This is because a typical teenager or young adult may not think often about death or his or her mortality and takes risks older people would not. During this stage of life, a person can think that he or she is invincible and perhaps even immortal. Adolescent youth and young adults have an egocentric idea of death. Though the average adolescent and young adults knows that death exists, the person’s mind believe that death is not going to happen to him or her until either he or she is ready or for years to come in old age. In this stage of life a person typically does not concern oneself with matters of the future, this includes death. Often in this stage of life, of one thinks about death, the person may romanticize it rather than fear it (Berger, 2008). It is not until middle and late adulthood that a person really starts to ponder and plan for death’s appearance.

                           The Middle Adulthood Viewpoint

            Because middle adults have become familiar with death, the dance takes on a new urgency. It becomes a tango of denial and fear. The tango takes shape in such a manner because,  unlike the younger years when one ignores and romances death, middle adulthood finds a person denying death and fearing it. Gone are the romantic notions of youth and the days when ignorance and egocentrism ruled the ideas of death. Death becomes a prominent figure in the person’s life, ever in the background and taunting the person from the shadows. To cope with the new understanding of death, the middle adult may often avoid any mention or sign of death in a hope to pretend that it simply will not happen. Surprisingly it may not be death that scares the adult so, but the fear of leaving behind those he or she loves and leaving things undone. At this stage the person desires time, nothing but time (Berger, 2008). For example, Queen Elizabeth I’s last words reflect this idea. According to Thomas (2012) Queen Elizabeth I was 69 when she took her final dance with death. For some, this is still a young age. Her last words, though refuted, were “All my possession for a moment of time.” However, this view eventually chances into one of acceptance and even eagerness as a person reaches old age.

                                  Late Adulthood Viewpoint

            After trying to defeat death in the tango of denial, the older adult chances the dance. Instead of a the frantic tango, the dance smoothes and slows into the steady partnership o the waltz. At this point the living partner is comfortable with his or her counterpart and even embraces the partner as the dance continues until the final strand of music plays its eerie beat. The reason this happens is that normally when a person earns the status of old age, the person also obtains new views on death. These views tend to be favorable. Death is no longer taboo and many accept it and start to prepare for his or her eventual demise (Berger, 2008). In some cases, old individuals desire death as a means to the end of an existence that has become unbearable. 
                                 Cultural Attitudes toward Death and Dying

           Just as each person dances with death differently so to do different religious ideologies and social cultures approach death in various ways.  Religion can change a person’s perspective on death, just as a person’s culture can instill superstitions concerning death’s presence in one’s life. Some strong beliefs include the Christian attitudes, the heathen attitudes, atheistic and agnostic attitudes, in addition to deeply held superstitions that dominate Japanese culture.

                                   The Christian Attitude

            The Christians view death as a means to be with their Creator. If one did not accept the Creator that person would spend eternity in a place or torture and separation from the Creator in the afterlife. The belief in a monotheistic Creator gives purpose to those who follow this faith and can help a person accept death more easily as the person believes that he or she will live in a paradise known as heaven with an all powerful creator that loves the individual.

                               The Reincarnation Attitude

            In religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Neopaganism, thoughts and beliefs on reincarnation abound. Reincarnation is the idea that when a person dies in this life on Earth, the person will be reborn once again (Robinson, 2010). For some reincarnation followers, this cycle is continuous, for others, such as Buddhism, the cycle of rebirth is to perpetuate one’s knowledge and growth to the point one can reach Nirvana (Berger, 2008). These religions typically see more cremations than burials.

                                   The Atheist and Agnostic Attitude 

            In Greek Atheist ‘a’ means ‘without’, theist means ‘god’ and Gnostic means ‘knowledge’. Basically atheist means ‘one without god’ and agnostic means ‘one without knowledge (of god)’. Considering this ideology, many atheists do not think anything happens after death that people simply stop existing as know it to be. Many think, scientifically that as not matter is neither created or destroyed, we simply merge back into the earth and our energy is redistributed in the universe. Agnostics do not know and often times do not care to know (Rand, 2011). Though it is likely that one a religion may be more accepting of death, it can be hard to base this on a whole of all people who follow a religion. A person’s view on death largely depends on that individual in combination with age, religion, or lack thereof and cultural superstitions.

                              Fun Facts on Japanese Death Superstitions

            Japan has enduring superstitions surrounding death and dying. The most significant death superstitions in Japan surround the number four.  In Japan, four is a number that a person must avoid because the number four and the word “death” are pronounced the same way.  Likewise, if a room in a Japanese hospital’s maternity ward was room 43, it is a bad omen because it is could be ‘still-born’ (Japan Zone, 2011). Another superstition surrounds the color white. In Japan, white- not black- is the color of death and mourning. This reasoning is largely because of the sick pallor of the dead (Bobette, 2004).  One can only guess the horror a Japanese person might have when learning that brides in America typically marry in a color not of purity, but of death and sorrow. 
                                   Conclusion

            Death is thought of in many ways and that perception changes throughout a person’s lifespan, as does the different stereotypes associated with age because of ageism, which can be rather harsh when discussing older generations. Culture and religion can have a strong impact on a person’s view of death, as can the media as is proven by the number of health commercials on television and how the general populace concerns themselves with health and wellness through both natural and artificial methods.

 

References

Bearon, L. Ph. D. (2002). Little Old Ladies and Grumpy Old Men: How Language Shapes Our Views About Aging. Retrieved from: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/pdfs/fcs492.pdf

Berger, K. S. (2008). The developing person through the life span (7th ed.). Epilogue. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Bobette, B. (2004). Underworld Tales: The Color of Death. Retrieved from: http://www.underworldtales.com/color.htm

Herr, N., Ph.D. (2007). The Sourcebook for Teaching Science. Television and Health: Television Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

Japan Zone. (2011). Japanese Superstitions: Death and the Number Four. Retrieved from: http://www.japan-zone.com/omnibus/superstition.shtml

ProCon.org. (2012). Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers? Retrieved by: http://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org/

Rand, D. (2011). Agnosticism and Atheism: Varieties of Unbelief. Retrieved from: http://www.atheisme.ca/repertoire/rand_david/agnost_en.htmlhttp://www.atheisme.ca/repertoire/rand_david/agnost_en.html

Robinson, B. A. (2010). Religious Tolerance: Glossary of spiritual and religious terms starting with the letter ‘R’. Reincarnation. Retrieved from: http://www.religioustolerance.org/gl_r.htm

Thomas, H. (2012). Elizabethi: Biography and Famous Quotes. Retrieved from: http://www.elizabethi.org/us/