One subject that tends to change in how it's approached in every society is death. For some people, they don't want to talk about it in case it comes for them or their loved ones. Some people just don't want to think about how mortal we are. Some people are just uncomfortable without knowing why. Some are what we call morbid and like discussing it too much.
Then there are the ones who treat it with humour.
I found this website http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2008/08/101-ways-to-say-died.html and except for one repetition there's actually 117 different ways people said a person died on their tombstones. But none of these epitaphs are from a date later than 1825. Which makes me wonder if people stopped being creative because of a change in society's attitude or because it cost less to simply put died and a date.
If I was going to be buried rather than cremated I would want something creative on my tombstone. Finding something unique might be hard though. Perhaps I'll take a page from my attitude and use that.
There are many ways to die. Some methods are more plausible and have a higher chance of actually happening than others. For instance it is highly likely that I will die from a heart attack rather than dying from being stepped on by a yak in the middle of a mountain field while dancing and surrounded by singing children. The heart attack has a much, much higher chance of happening because I doubt I'll ever be dancing in a mountain field with yaks and singing children.
But one never knows.
Seeing the list of ways people said died made me wonder, how many ways are there to die? How long a list could we make if I got everyone I know to think up ways to die. Oh, there are the obvious ones - heart attack, stroke, run over, shot, stabbed, lung failure, terminal diseases, fire, drowning, accidents, etc - but then we can get into more improbable deaths. Falling from a tree off a cliff edge on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific while drunk on coconut milk. Being bitten by a rabid rabbit being chased by an angry badger in the middle of a forest while on a survival safari.
I mean, how many ways can we think of that a person can die, no matter how realistic or not? Especially since some ways that one would think are improbable have actually happened. There have been reports of people dying by having a piano fall on them, or an anvil, even by being hit by a falling duck. My brother could have died when he fell out of the tree and cut his head open with the hatchet. Luckily for him it was a toy hatchet and didn't cut very deep. But for a woodsman chopping branches such a fall could have been fatal.
Today's society makes certain deaths that did occur in the past highly unlikely these days. We don't go out in horse and buggies or sail wooden ships across the ocean (as ocean liners, some people still find it challenging to try yachts but those are usually made from fiberglass not wood). We do have a higher chance of death by mechanical means with all the technology we work with.
So, if I was to have an epitaph, what would I choose? I'm strongly tempted to have "At least it wasn't by falling from a tree off a cliff edge on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific while drunk on coconut milk." but maybe I'll go with "Not stepped on by a yak while dancing in a mountain meadow with singing children." It'd be cheaper but I'm not sure which would be funnier as the years went by.
After all, if people can't remember me with humour then what's the point of it all?
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