Soul ~ Water? Metaphors for Death

What useful metaphors do you know for death?

It's topic we often prefer to avoid, but avoiding the topic doesn't make it any less real.

Whether loved ones die when they are young or old, it's often too soon for those who loved them.

Consider this analogy and then contribute your own. Be sensitive to the fact that other readers may have recently lost farewelled someone they love.

Many people believe that when someone dies only the body dies. It is just as if a glass bottle full of water broke, and the bottle became useless. The container is gone, but what's inside — the water — remains. The part of a person that's left after the body dies is often called the "soul" or "spirit." Some people believe the soul is the part of a human that loves, feels, and creates; it's the part that make us who we are. kidshealth.org

This is not a philosophical conversation, but a practical one that may be of immediate benefit to those who mourn. Remember too that readers come from varying backgrounds and faiths. What common ground can we find?

Comments

steve said…
Many "authorities" write that there are five steps each one of us must go through after a loved one dies. These steps are the same regardless of the survivors beliefs about death.

The five steps or stages:

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance

Interesting, also; the same steps or stages must be worked through after a divorce, a relationship ends or a job is lost.

The five steps, so the "experts" say, will not necessarily come in any order, but rather one will go from one step to another without reason or obvious trigger. These steps must be worked through and may, and probably will, require much time and may go on for years depending on the attachment to the one lost.

"The greater the love, the greater the loss, the greater the pain."...unknown