There’s nothing to mourn about death any more than there is to mourn about the growing of a flower. What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don’t live up until their death. They don’t honor their own lives, they piss on their lives. They shit them away. Dumb fuckers. They concentrate too much on fucking, movies, money, family, fucking. Their minds are full of cotton. They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them. Their brains are stuffed with cotton. They look ugly, they talk ugly, they walk ugly. Play them the great music of the centuries and they can’t hear it. Most people’s deaths are a sham. There’s nothing left to die.
― Charles Bukowski
Cardinal Guzman 
It surely is the way we live our lives that’s important. I love this saying: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘WOW What a Ride!’
Some people have desperately sad lives, but I do think we all have choices. Some of what Mr Bukowski says is definitely true.
I agree that there is some words of wisdom in what he’s saying and I think it’s safe to say that Bukowski himself skidded in broadside, thoroughly used up & totally worn out. He lived a hard, yet productive, life.
I think he’s over generalizing – this is probably only true for a percentage of the population, not everyone.
I so agree.
Then I used to work at a funeral home.
There’s a steady supply in that business, and you never have the same customer twice…
I think funerals should be free. In Israel the state sponsors the funerals, but in Norway they’ll gladly rob you when someone close to you dies. Fucking vultures.
😀 😀 😀 Same here… one business you’ll never see to go belly up. Your posts always stir some emotion and comotion CG .. bless you man!
I see the wisdom in his words, but I’m not like that. I do mourn death. For someone who has seen a lot of it, it’s not a big deal. It becomes a part of you and every time you lose someone else, it gnaws at you just a little bit more… so perhaps by the time you go, there really isn’t much left to die or mourn. It’s a vicious circle.
I mourn death, but only if it’s someone close to me.
Generally people’s lives consist of work & sleep, so I agree to some extent with Bukowski: What is terrible is not death but the lives people live…
Oh no matter how we may have lived death is unknown territory and hence people are scared
if all were saints,that too would not scare away death…
we mourn for the body,the soul, we mourn for the touch, the moments we shared..mourning is as essential as any other emotion, one cant be that aloof
big fan of Charles Bukowski..what he said is partly right too
Yes, even elephants mourn. I saw it in a documentary. I think there’s some clips of mourning elephants on YouTube as well.