Say goodbye to me, dammit!

by Jenna Viljoen

"People are always bitching and moaning about life until they’re told, ‘sorry, you’re dying now!’", said Peter Fox yesterday when he launched his book Dying: A Practical Guide to the Journey at Wordfest’s Launch Pad.
Putting a positive spin on death, Peter was dressed in a shirt patterned with smiling fish and funereal black suit pants and shoes.
He feels that Westerners are too "morbid" about the notion of death.
He tells about 11 people at the launch – half of them scholars from the local Mary Waters High – that the work came after a lot of "late night scribbling".
He says: "What freaks people out, are the inch-by-inch steps of dying".
The book tries to help the dying as well
as those close to them.
"I guess I can call myself a midwife."
He gets frustrated with the Western notion of death as "morbid", and people’s refusal to speak of death as a process. It’s a mindset he came face-to-face with on 3Talk with Noeleen last week when he appeared on her show.
Talking about religion, Peter says atheists ask him not to "get too religious with them," but also want him to pray for them.
"They want to play both sides".
An audience member quips: "It’s as if they want to make a deposit (in Heaven’s bank account)."
The book’s editor, Grahamstonian Priscilla Hall, says: "(The book) provides a launch pad for dealing with death, much like the one (launch pad) we’re in now!"