Everything Ends

Last night marked the end of my journey with "Six Feet Under." For those of you who have been living under a rock or in a coma for the last six years, 6FU was a series on HBO that followed the Fisher family. The Fishers are Funeral Directors. Almost every episode started with a death that would end up at their doors. There was all kinds of other drama for the family - relationships, deaths of their loved ones, life decisions, etc., but there was this constant presence of death in their lives. Not to mention the fallout of growing up in a funeral home.

Let me back up a minute here. After my father was diagnosed with what we thought was metastasized prostate cancer, I started preparing myself for his untimely demise. I became a little obsessed with death on some level and remembered hearing about a series called "Dead Like Me." This was shortly after starting my Netflix subscription, so I did a search and read the synopsis. Through the marvel of technology it began arriving at my door a short time later. I am a dark person by nature, with a dry sense of humor and a well-honed edge of sarcasm. I like dark and quirky comedies and "DLM" fit the bill wonderfully. It was about an 18 year old girl who dies unexpectedly and becomes a Grim Reaper - someone who has to escort other people through death to the other side. I'm going to assume that you clicked on the link above and read the synopsis, so I don't have to fill you in here.

In an effort to make sense of - and possibly make peace with - my own mortality and the mortality of those around me, I moved on to 6FU after finishing DLM. Now, I'm not going to sit here like some weirdo and tell you these shows changed my life, but they kind of did. It was like being faced with death presented with humor and a certain practicality has allowed me to come to terms with it. I'm not saying I'm ok with death. I'm not - it sucks. But it's part of life and a commonality we all share, some sooner than others.

Somehow or another this preoccupation with death, not the sensationalized mass murder of a slasher film or video game, but the quiet inevitability of it has made me a bit more cognizant of how I live my life. Everything ends, according to the aptly named soundtrack for 6FU, and even if I'm halfway there, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

And put some comedies in my Netflix queue.