It is no longer politically correct to die

 

CNN headline today: Hospitals in US Covid hotspots: “We are seeing people passing quicker than before.”

 

PASSING. It looks as if no one dies any more. They ‘PASS’. To PASS has replaced to die faster than flip-flops replaced thongs for summer foot wear.

 

Is humanity, that highest level of evolution so far, so afraid of DEATH that we can’t even utter the word? This, of course, feeds into the afterlife myth at a time when atheism is just hitting its stride. PASSING sounds like a fallback position, something to grasp. It's like,There is still something more to come!! I have an idea: let’s all believe that if we’re good little boys and girls and worship somebody every weekend, the place we pass into will be comfortable, not surrounded by flames like the entire West Coast is every summer and promises to get worse.

 

When I was growing up, ‘PASSING’ in my household was either "PASS the ketchup" or PASSING gas. My dad used the medical term FLATUS. He was a doctor. He died.

 

Grandmas used to die. Then they started to pass away. Now, they just pass. And so now, we wait for our grandma to PASS, although the thought occurs: maybe it is to PASS along her inheritance.