Monday, February 27, 2012

Mortality

The question of mortality cropped up unexpectedly in the car one afternoon. I was on my way to work, and the parents had kindly agreed to send me.

We were casually chatting about older workers in Singapore, and my dad pointed out that older workers who cross 62 years old face a major paycut - as much as 30%. That's the retirement age in Singapore, or as the government likes to call it, the re-employment age. Because most people don't retire at 62. They continue working. And with the new laws, the company has to offer its employee a job, should the employee be in the same health and mental condition.

Here's the catch - while the employer is legally obligated to offer re-employment, he doesn't have to do so on the same terms. So usually, employees face a huge pay cut. Simply for turning a year old, regardless of the fact that they are still doing the same job, the same hours, the same expectations.

And if the employee is unhappy, well, there are many younger people waiting for the job. And the company has done its legal obligation of offering a job.

Anyway, that wasn't the real point of this post. Just a minor rant.

What made the conversation really interesting was my mum musing that because of such factors, it is therefore better not to live so long, so you won't need as much money, you won't become sickly, or worse, a burden to your children.

Yes, my mum believes that a good age to die is 78 or 79. Still healthy, and not a burden, and lived a long enough life to enjoy it, being some of her reasons. She says she will pray for death with the time comes.

My dad sagely pointed out that while my fairly youthful mum can be cavelier about death now, the older a person gets, the more the person doesn't want to die.

It's one thing to imagine snuffing out the candle. But when the wick starts to burn out, the desire for the flame to stay alive becomes even stronger.

I'm not sure what to think. At 27, I'm fairly young I suppose. Death is still a somewhat vague concept. I've only had one close kin pass away (my maternal grandma). The only other funerals I've attended were my friends' relatives, and for work (which is another weird experience cos I essential throw up a wall and try not to imagine someone's pain while probing for intimate details).

But is my mum onto something? Dying at one's somewhat peak, rather than a painful withering process? Sure, she pointed out, there are those lucky few who pass away in their sleep, having died of old age and not had to experience the agony of a disease, or failing organs, or pain. But on the whole, most old people face some sort of disease and the longer you drag it out, the more painful it gets.

So is it so wrong to wish to die? And be at peace with it?

I just think it's very morbid.