Does the Knowledge of Death Cost Humans Happiness?

Nicole Wojnowski

Professor Melissa Santos

ENG102-037

6 April 2018

Does the Knowledge of Death Cost Humans Happiness?

            How important are humans to nature? Are we creating life or destroying it? When you read One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, quotes can be found throughout the reading that everyone can relate to personally. Me being a very empathetic person and someone who enjoys the human mind, I often think about what life would be like without humans as far as what nature would be like. Before humans were alive, the Earth was blooming with beautiful foliage and animals were roaming around freely. Nobody was cutting down anything before, everything was one-hundred percent natural. There was no pollution, no global warming, animals weren’t going extinct fast, and there weren’t selfish people who though about how to improve only themselves and not care about other outcomes.

“In nature there is life and death, and nature is joyful. In human society there is life and death, and people live in sorrow.” (Fukuoka 163) This is a thought that comes across my mind when I think about how humans are different than animals. Aside from physical features, animals do not live as we do. Yes, they have parents and most of the time, the parents raise the young and teach life lessons. They also learn to find shelter and food (for example, the mushroom hunters that were seen in the video viewed during class), however, one thing that they don’t really think about is death. As humans, we are all introduced to the idea of death at a very young age. When we were toddlers we were told, “Don’t do this”, “Don’t do that”. Even now, we still hear it every so often. People say these because they are concerned about the safety of someone. If nobody knew about death, I feel like people wouldn’t be as concerned when they do things.

            Animals have never had the issue of having mental health disabilities that us humans have. They have emotions as we do, but they don't think about the future like we do. We have to worry about getting a good education, creating another life by finding a spouse and having a family, paying taxes and bills, and living the "American Dream". With the knowledge of death and the way some religions teach death, or the way it's portrayed on media, death is scary and you are supposed to do everything you can to live the best life you can by cramming incase something happens and your life is cut short. In the end, is the stress that was self-inflicted or put on you, worth it? Will you worry about what you're going to be getting paid so that you can get that luxury car? Life has become a competition where we feel that we need to be the best at everything and worry about when we're going to pass on rather than live in the moment like animals do and take it one step at a time. A possible outcome could be a decrease in mental health issues such as stress and anxiety and could boost confidence levels. Doesn't this sound like the life you'd want to have? No worries about the past or the future, just focusing on what you're doing at the moment? I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty nice to me.