15388 - A child’s life begins with the notion of death

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athena Kehagias

In Hellenism, one of the most important things we teach to children is respect for the dead. Because, it is the notion of continuity. At first, you may say that it is very hard and very difficult. In fact, the hardest thing is to be forgotten before you die. And this is exactly what you do, when you don’t teach to children what happened with the elderly. And after that, you will see that when they grow they’ll tell you “why didn’t you tell me?” Because, of course, they do remember. Children thereon, have an approach of the future that is very strange. Firstly, you have the impression that they function only in the present. So, more or less, they enjoy only what is instant: a form of carpe diem. It’s not like this. Children initially think that they are immortal. That is a huge problem. And you yourselves enhance that, because you are hiding all those who die. In fact, a child’s life begins with the notion of death, which seems a bit strange. But, in reality it is “in the beginning there is death”, which allows us to understand: “and before that what do we do” ?