Journal of Loss and Trauma, 15:325338, 2010

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1532-5024 print=1532-5032 online
DOI: 10.1080/15325020903382442

Pedagogy of Mortality: A
Concept in Progress
PAUL J. MOON
Alacare Home Health & Hospice, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

This article concerns the pedagogy of mortality (POM), an

educational and learning concept in progress. POM aims to foster
clearer purposefulness of being human by emphasizing our fatal
nature. This concept regards how deliberate and mindful consideration of assured death can be promotive toward prompting critical
contemplations upon ones declarative worldview, as well as
subjecting the worldview to needful reformation, for the sake of
deepening the meaningfulness of life as evidenced by the specification of for what one will die and why. Discussions concerning
the concepts rationale, contextual background, theoretical
anatomy, and benefits are presented.

A person dies in the U.S. every 12 seconds on average (U.S. Census Bureau,
2008). There is such a 12th second for each of us, without fail. Whether or not
a person accepts his or her mortal fate, it is plain and clear that all humans are
assigned a terminal lot in life, though the manner in which we handle our lot
may differ vastly. Surely, some persons approach death constructively on the
whole, while many willingly plunge into life-impeding, destructive orientations. Why such differences? What makes for observable variances in how
individuals perceive death, and so live until then? Freud (1933) remarked
on human instincts that vie for motivational dominance: eros (life drive)
and thanatos (death drive). There is palpable and observable enmity
between these opposing human instincts. And yet, precisely because of
Received 5 August 2009; accepted 15 September 2009.
The author recognizes, with gratitude, Dr. Douglas Kleiber, at the University of Georgia,
for his review of this article in its original form and helpful suggestions. He also thanks the
peer reviewers for their comments and thoughts.
Address correspondence to Paul J. Moon, Alacare Home Health & Hospice, 2400 John
Hawkins Pkwy., Birmingham, AL 35244. E-mail: paul.moon@alacare.com
325

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the tensions involved, both forces can be accentuated, refined, and further
illuminated. As such, death, though grim, nevertheless deeply informs life.
This article presents a concept in progress, the pedagogy of mortality
(POM). POM aims to foster clearer purposefulness of being human by
emphasizing our fatal nature. Moreover, POM concurs that death is teleological (of purposeful design). Feifel (1990) stated that our future mandate is to
extend our grasp of how death can serve life (p. 542). In like spirit, the core
intent of POM is to prod adult learners toward the progressive learning of life
from lessons of death. To be clear, this is not to fashion some delusional curricula whereby mortals are misled toward transcending or overcoming
death. Rather, POM recognizes the boundedness of human potentialby
time, space, and death. All mortals inhere liminal borders that are insurmountable. And yet, there is immense education within and because of these
borders that is able to enrich mortal lives beyond first-glance expectations,
and such human development is the central propulsion proffered by POM.
The discussions to follow will touch upon relevant social discourse for
sake of delineating a context for POM, along with specific components of the
concept. Moreover, examples of benefits from exercising POM will be
described.

CULTURAL CONTEXT
Phelan and Larson (2002) indict the present American culture as one that
generally strives to defy and deny aging (p. 1307). In so doing, the present
Western culture also defies and denies the rightful place of death in the mainstream public discourse. Though critics, like Kellehear (1984), disagree with
the postulation that modern societies are death-denying, it must not be
ignored that societies are essentially comprised of individuals who either
demonstrate outright avoidance of death issues or act in furtive ways that
remain complicit with the evasion of death-related issues. Although not every
individual in a society is death-denying, the hegemonic effect may render
that society to ultimately be death-denying. Indeed, Exley (2004) asserts that
societies have become increasingly secularized and cites Walter (1991), who
averred that modern society counters the facts of dying and death by prizing
their antitheses: youth, health, vitality (p. 306).
Such death dismissal is echoed by others who have studied humans
attitude toward mortality. Davies (2005), from an anthropological and religious
position, opined that the fear of death in the 20th century was closely related to
the fear of life. This life-fear is descriptive of Tomer and Eliasons (2000)
assertion of a rationalizing tendency among humans that erroneously
concludes that since death is an inextricable part of life, one way to contend
with death-fear is to not really live. In other words, death is such a threat
to modern society because death refuses to die (Morgan, 1995, p. 40).

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Assuredly, even physicians must concede to the ultimate impotence of medicine as a cure for death (Sulmasy, 2006, p. 1388). The lingering tension in culture is an augmenting strident polarization between those who convincingly
acknowledge death as stark reality, and so endeavor toward deliberate living,
and those who refuse (by word and=or deed) to adequately acknowledge
death and so fatuously wander enslaved in mortal fear.
According to Ariess (1974, 1981) taxonomy of death perspectives
adopted by cultures in history, the present age is one where death is simply
denied. Morgan (1995) noted:
We know that death exists. In our lifetime, more deaths have occurred
than in the history of the human race (Corr, 1979). We have lived in
the shadow of nuclear destruction, which Feifel (1990) has called our
possible common epitaph. We even accept the abstraction of our own
death . . . . But we do not have an affective consciousness of death. We
do not seem to take seriously that death is the end of our possibilities,
the collapse of our space and time (Flynn, 1987). As death is removed
from daily consciousness, it appears to be less appropriate (Corr,
1979), creating more complicated grief (Rando, 1993). (p. 40)

Moreover, Feifel (1969) alluded to a secular turn in culture where religious

and theological concerns of God and the divine are suppressed, mocked,
and systemically relegated to tertiary subjects of human interest and importance. Such a secularizing process is still easily seen in our day, as the notion
of meliorism is militantly propagated by the media, for instance. Hence, Wass
(2004) asserts that media literacy, actual crime statistics, and discussions
of natural dying may correct distorted images that glorify or trivialize death
(p. 301).
Though there is evidence to suggest that death is not seen as a normative occurrence in American culture (Connor, 1998), to displace death as
pathological and anomalous is to shut the eyes of reason and sanity.
Although a mortal may question Why must I die? that mortal may perhaps
be better served by asking What is this death that I must succumb to and
how may I best prepare for it? The haughty human orientation that bemoans
death as inimical likely fuels distorted or complicated grief. Further, though
it may be that death anxiety is real and promulgated as a matter of course in
human development, death anxiety can also be considered a social artifice
supported by an assumptive world (Parkes, 1998), or worldview, that insistently touts a secularistic life philosophy nurtured by a lack of reflexivity and
continuance of discrediting meta-physics based on unfounded tenets. When
the door to the noumenal (supernatural) sphere is bolted shut, the result is
misinformation or substandard science (knowledge). Atheist-secularistic
philosophies ensure a narrow array of views, thus fostering nescience (shutting
out) of overarching (noncontingent) realities that inform the lesser-tiered
governments (contingent intelligences). A societal and cultural situation

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characteristic of this sort of zeitgeist is in desperate need of critical

examination of its worldview positions toward reformation.

ABOUT DEATH
Happily, more reasonable views of death do exist. According to Davies
(2005):
The history of death is a history of self-reflection. Who are we? Whence
do we come, and whither go after death? If there is an afterlife, what is it
like and how might we prepare for it? But if this life is the fullness of our
time, how best might we live it, knowing we are going to die? (p. 1)

Such queries serve as beginning aids to reflect upon the foundational and
fixed events to be incurred in life. Bishop J. C. Ryle of Liverpool observed
that in the midst of life we are in death (1878, p. 353). This depicts the lurking and never-waning possibility of death in the everyday. For existentialists,
death has always been a prime concern:
Human beings . . . know that at some future time, they will not be. Being
implies the fact of nonbeing, and the meaning of existence involves the
fact of nonexistence. Existentialism holds that death gives life reality; it is
the one absolute fact of life. Human beings are aware of the fact that they
must die; and they must confront this fact. (Patterson & Watkins, 1996,
p. 431)

Similarly, Frankl (1986) explained that there is much to be gained in directly

facing the irreversible fact of ones mortal estate. To descry deaths teleological function is to begin understanding that human mortality is a necessary
presence to rouse up the slumbering mortal conscience. Indeed, one
prominent physicist described his death meaning by confessing that were
death to be abolished, all that we call precious in the world would die
(Goodman, 1981, p. 81). A designed function of mortality is to force a clearer
allocation of value to what makes up our lives precisely based on the fact that
none of these will last for long. In that death already exists in the world and
mortal beings are still found taking life for granted, what value would be
given to the myriad of existential accoutrements if earthly life continued
indefinitely?

Toward Death
Fostering useful existential ends by focusing on death is not an uncommon
idea in history. Yet amid pervasively health-wealth-prosperity-propagating
cultures, such as the U.S., there is a proclivity to turn a blind eye to how

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our earthly itinerary has a definite end. Such a society will undoubtedly
underwrite a sentiment as offered by Francois de La Rochefoucauld:
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye (Bartlett,
1919). Agreeably, death is a distressing and miserable reality that no
eye may steadily look upon. But consider: The sun is a meaningful
necessity to all of creation, and so is death to mortals. Though the sun
is with power to burn and destroy, it is yet a wondrous blessing to all that
grows. Death, too, ultimately kills but yet can stir yawning fascination and
existential insight. Lessons garnered from facing mortality, or deaths pedagogy, are admittedly anxiety ridden, yet it is argued that there is wisdom
in deliberately seeking out such tutelage. A grave problem with mortals
may concern the resigned orientation that since death cannot be looked
upon steadily, it ought to be ignored or distorted altogether. In direct contrast, via POM, the case is made that death must be looked at carefully
and intentionally nevertheless. Just as the sun and its effects must be better understood regarding the existence of all earthbound things, so must
death be sought to be better understood for the crushingly obvious reason
that both the sun and death are constant and foreboding realities. To take
our eyes off of what is so sure is to invite folly. POM can be a prevenient
tool toward meeting death more meaningfully, which will have redounding effects on the lives of those we leave behind.

ANATOMY OF POM
As is the nature of theoretical propositions to inhere biases and discriminating factors, this concept is no exception. The perspective of POM
assumes (thus far in the processive formulation) that (a) the construct of
worldview is a quintessential component, with governing potency, that
must be conscientiously nursed and made more explicit; (b) the lives
adults lead can be better served when their worldviews are recursively
examined through intentional critical contemplation for purpose of exposing tacit assertions and illusory assumptions; and (c) existence is significantly more meaningful when one has conviction of an ideal for which
to die. POM regards these basic tenets to be stimulated and facilitated
by deliberate and mindful consideration of impending death. And so
POM, an educational and learning concept in progress regarding how
deliberate and mindful consideration of assured death can be promotive
toward prompting critical contemplations upon ones declarative worldview, as well as subjecting the worldview to needful reformation, for
the sake of deepening the meaningfulness of life as evidenced by the
specification of for what one will die and why, is offered amid a particular
type of societal and cultural context. Anatomical elements of POM will be
expanded below.

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Primacy of Worldview
Worldview, or Weltanschauung, is the hub of a persons interpretive grid.
This construct has also been called cognitive world and cognitive schemas
(Marrone, 1999), which are clusters of knowledge about objects or
sequences of events that compose our cognitive field (p. 498). Moreover,
Parkes (1998) referred to the assumptive world as human beings internal
meaning structure used to interpret external reality. A further understanding
of worldview comes via the notion of frame of reference in transformative
learning theory. As Mezirow (2000) described,
A frame of reference is a meaning perspective, the structure of assumptions and expectations through which we filter sense impressions. It
involves cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions. It selectively
shapes and delimits perception, cognition, feelings, and disposition by
predisposing our intentions, expectations, and purposes. It provides
the context for making meaning within which we choose what and
how a sensory experience is to be construed and=or appropriated. (p. 16)

Simply put, a frame of reference is the mechanism a person employs to

comprehend information. Subsequently, it stands to reason that the quality
(sort) of the frame of reference will directly determine the quality (sort) of
a persons sense of existence. Such an assertion is echoed in Frankls
(1986) logotherapy. One of the assumptions of logotherapy is that if a
mortals worldview is sound, then psychological assistance (to address dysfunctions) is not required. An example of how the quality of a worldview
may significantly impact a life is the fundamental difference between the
material-secularist, who declares that the now is all there is (there is no
eternity, there is no eternal perspective . . . there are no abiding principles
by which human life is to be judged, embraced, or evaluated . . . all reality
is restricted or limited to the now [Sproul, 1986, p. 36]), and a supernaturalist, for whom a Supreme Being is believed upon and reality beyond this
present world is expected. The secularist is prone to reject as authoritative
any proposition=knowledge that is presumed to have supernatural origin.
The person who professes belief in the supernatural is bound to reject stringent secularistic views of human existence. Thus, in both of these instances
the differing frames of reference will determine what is believed and
discarded. And so, these two grids of interpretation translate to distinct
patterns of planning, coping, grieving, celebrating, living, and dying.
Concerning the operation of worldviews as meaning-making or deciphering instruments, a particular accentuation is provided by terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986). TMT rightly
emphasizes the primacy of adopted worldviews (or cultural worldviews,
per its theorists), which can greatly buffer against existential anxiety
(Pyszczynski et al., 2006, p. 526). The authors of TMT claim that numerous

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empirical studies evince how cues of death and mortality tend to propel
people to dig in their heels, as it were, against mortal threat and engage
in what TMT refers to as worldview defense. It should be noted, however, that
the paradigm of POM is disinclined to accept the totality of TMT, which is
founded upon, for instance, evolutionary psychology and asserts a
tendentious understanding of human fear and anxiety that is repressionist
(Pyszczynski, 2004). One must be mindful that TMT stems from predating
theoretical frameworks that predominantly hold death as dread. As such, it
is only logical that a worldview positioned combatively against death
becomes defensive when the enemy nears. Yet TMT is here alluded to for
its componential emphasis regarding the critical importance of a persons
adopted worldview.
Per TMT, emergent thoughts of death have schismatic effects in the
human psyche; it is difficult to be truly indifferent about mortality. Such
reported polarization reflects the meaning-deciphering activity inherent in
adopted worldviews. A case in point is the assumption of TMT that human
mortality is singularly considered as a problem. Though this may be an
alleged prevalent view, is it the only view? In contrast, POM proffers that
our shared and unmistakable mortality can be useful in bringing about a
refining motivation for meaningful being. To be clear, POM considers death
as a formidable and angst-inducing prospect. But death need not be a
problem only. The meanings of death are malleable. Because of the recursive
process between operational worldviews and the mechanics of meaningdeciphering, death has also been held as an opportunity, gateway, rite of
passage, release, freedom from bondage, happiness (per Aristotle; Bone,
1996), and so forth. None of these resemble a stance of death being solely
problematic. Even if death was solely problematic, problems and suffering
have a wondrous way of stimulating constructive and fruitful outcomes (Ryff
& Singer, 2003).
A second example showcasing the primacy of worldview is seen in a
qualitative study by Braun and Berg (1994) on parental grief entailing interviews of 10 bereaved mothers. In their work, prior meaning structure was
found to be the core factor in determining the nature of parental grief. These
authors defined prior meaning structure as the parents descriptions of the
collection of beliefs, assumptions, values, and norms that characterized their
reality or their knowledge of life (Braun & Berg, 1994, p. 114). Thus, this
allusion is to a particular set of expectations in and of life based upon a particular set of beliefs about human existence and reality. In this way, it is logical
to assert that the closer the set of beliefs is to undeniable earthly reality, the
more sober the set of expectations, which in turn enables a higher probability to absorb and accommodate perceived losses. For example, to deeply
understand and be convinced of the guaranteed temporality of all human life
regardless of gender, age, class, color, or creed is to elevate the probability of
engendering a mind-frame vast enough to potentially meaningfully fit all

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kinds of life losses. In contrast, it is only sensible to project that a mind-frame

that habitually eschews the reality of everyday and long-term serious or fatal
life losses will, in effect, struggle that much more as a meaningful fit of such
loss events eludes natural efforts.
A salient point from the parental grief study mentioned above concerns a
singular research participant who displayed a worldview reflecting how she
may not have had the illusions that life is characterized basically by only good
experiences, which was in opposition to the remainder of the study participants who assumed life to be basically good (Braun & Berg, 1994,
p. 123). The authors of the study emphasized how that one particular bereaved
mother did not undergo suicidal despair as did the other participating parents.
Again, the quality of the worldview is inexorably tied to how life is endured
and experienced. A pervading thrust of POM is for the never-ceasing nurturance and reformation of a perceivers worldview toward closing the gap
between what actually occurs in life and what one expects to occur in life.

Critical Contemplation
The need for mindful and careful thought to what we believe and value in
life is obvious. This sort of exercise is commonly referred to as critical
thinking (King, Wood, & Mines, 1990). Critical thinking cannot rightfully
exist apart from critical reflectionanother popularized term. In the context
of discussing POM, critical contemplation will supplant the use of the term
reflection as contemplation is more at the notion of deeply ruminating upon
a thing in order to impart it rightly into practical living (Buchmann, 1990),
whereas reflection can be suggestive of more so a mere mirroring of a thing.
To critically contemplate upon issues pertaining to POM is not to
perfunctorily mirror those issues in oneself but rather to seek truthfulness
and essentiality.
In a moral and psychosocial sense, human development concerns
the accruing of life experiences through socialization, which teems full of
uncritically adopted sets of assumptions, values, and beliefsin a word,
worldviews (Cranton, 2006). Indeed, adequately deciphering the innards of
worldviews is a complex and knotty endeavor: Ideologies are hard to detect
being embedded in language, social habits, and cultural forms that combine
to shape the way we think about the world (Brookfield, 2001, p. 14). It is
believed that these accumulated, possibly internalized and integrated (Ryan
& Deci, 2000), assumptive tenets remain as tacit knowledge, more or less
dormant in unconscious thought processes and only revealed via secondary
instrumental expressions and opinions. To reiterate, the import of a worldview or frame of reference is that this schema serves as the fundamental grid
of interpretation for human beings. Incoming external stimuli, as well as
internally circulating mentations, are directed and understood in light of
the framework of the worldview that filters such data. The role of critical

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contemplation, especially in adulthood, is to expose ones worldview and

subject it to needful examination. In fact, Brookfield goes as far as saying that
we cannot be fully adult unless we attempt to unearth and challenge the
ideology (2001, p. 16).
On contemplation and existential growth, Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004)
report how focusing on facts or emotions alone did not produce posttraumatic growth (p. 11). They claim that deliberate cognitive processing is
crucial to growth outcomes, and this processing is happening somewhere
in the time frame between intrusive, automatic thinking and posttraumatic
growth (p. 11). The concept of POM acknowledges the occurrence of involuntary and disturbing thoughts of death and related topics and how these
may feel different from a self-initiated, voluntary, and purposive cogitation
upon ones finite existence. POM asserts that deliberate cogitations, including
critical contemplation, of death and its meanings may foster a felt existential
urgency to act (or to not) toward possible growth and development.
As this anatomical component of critical contemplation refers to a
persons thinking=learning process, it might be useful at this point to make
more explicit what is meant by the pedagogy of mortality. The way in which
the term pedagogy is used concerning POM is both in the general sense and
the specific sense. Pertaining to the general, the pedagogy of POM is descriptive of the educational dynamic associated with death contemplation. As
opposed to a position, for instance, that ideations of death or mortality, including experiential grief, are just something to get through, the pedagogical
aspect of POM underlines the importance and the viable possibility of learning, developing, and discovering anew through thoughts of death (of self and
others). Simply, the pedagogical spotlight is on the intentionality of death
ideations. Furthermore, pertaining to the specific sense, POM is both educative and learning focused. In keeping with the distinctions averred by writers
regarding the nature of pedagogy, the term is used in the POM context to
denote presenter-centeredness (weight allotted to the individual or object
that communicates transferable knowledge) as well as learner=interpreter
contingency (Csibra & Gergely, 2006). As such, the pedagogy of POM can
be understood to be unidirectionally instructive to the existential learner,
who, in turn, subjectively processes the gained education from death. This
subjective processing by the learner=interpreter can be viewed, in part, as
an internal, perhaps an imaginative (participatory), dialogue between the
learner and his or her death ideations that further refines the meaningfulness
of issues and stakes involved. In these ways, the pedagogical accentuation and
value of POM is founded upon a rubric of education and learning (pedagogy).

An Ideal for Which to Live and Die

This third aspect of POMs anatomy (yet in no way of tertiary importance)
concerns the matter of a mortal possessing a singular ideal for which to live

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and die. This singular ideal is a matter of propulsion that gives climactic
purpose for very existence. In analogous terms, if worldview is the hub of
a perceivers inner world, then the singular ideal will serve as the organic
invigorating force that will sustain all congruent held beliefs within the
espoused conglomeration of beliefs as well as the ultimate justification for
the extant worldview. In simple terms, the singular ideal is an anchor that
grounds a mortal being. This singular ideal is something for which a mortal
will die, and live. And so this singular ideal becomes what defines the mortal
being.
Kierkegaard is remembered as one who channeled his existential suffering into constructive ends. As one translator of his works commented:
He refused to seek invulnerability. He accepted the suffering, he lived
with it, he searched it, and he found its costly meaning for himthat
he was to live as one called under Godto live as a lonely manto live
for an idea. (Kierkegaard, 1938, translators introduction section,
paragraph 30)

Kierkegaard emphatically indited to propel his readers toward a purity of

heart by being devoted to one thing. A bifurcation of desires and plurality
of ultimate interests are rendered futile and fatuous. Per Kierkegaard, to
will one thing is to will the Good, or God. To will one thing is to choose
a single ideal. For a cause and reason to be an anchor for ones existence
and being, it must be wholly unified and elevated above all other allegiances. Thus, as conveyed by the title Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing,
a pure heart will only have one true aim in life, and this singular aim will
convincingly be worth dying and living for. Such a treasure is what is
sought through POM.
Such sacrificial living is not a notion that is restricted to antiquity but one
that still remains in our time. This heroic measure of conducting the business
of living and dying is captured by Merleau-Ponty, who pithily stated shortly
after the end of World War II: The heroes are all dead (as quoted in Cohen,
2006, p. 35). This aspect of severe self-sacrifice is yet another poignant
illustration of a mortal singularly focused on a constructively meaningful
end that fills his or her days with distinct purposes, even unto ones mortal
fate. Indeed, it just may be that authentic heroes are those who give proof
of their heroism by focusing away from self-preservation at all cost to
preserving that broader, more worthy and lasting thingthat single thing
one desires to champion at all cost.

BENEFITS OF POM
But how would mortals benefit by exercising POM? As a start, mortals
penchant toward a steady regimen of hubristic presumptions may be

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corrected. Wass and Neimeyer (1995) proffered:

We accept the fact that to live fully in an economic manner we must
budget our resources. Time is our most important and most limited
resource, but we act as though no economizing were necessary. Our fear
of the human reality of death causes us to live not as though there is no
tomorrow, but as though there are always tomorrows. Consequently, we
miss the opportunity to live fully. (p. 42)

Attig (2004) warns that we are wrong to presume (claim to know when we
do not) that whatever posture we assume in the world is solid and permanent
(p. 350). Death is a clear signal that the most viable posture is only tentative,
and precariously so (Attig, 2004, p. 350). For any culture inspired and driven
by impudent independence, virtually endless choices, and assumed entitlement, the elements of humble submission, self-sacrifice (even unto death),
and integrating suffering into all of life may be viewed as repulsive and as
opprobrium. Such is all the more reason that cultures of arrogance and pride
must ruminate on and deliberately contemplate deeply the fixed existential
episodes in life. And perhaps POM may be assistive to that end.
An array of testimonies exist to the worth and value of pointed contemplation of our mortal estate. The benefits of POM are less a thing to be specified in a cold and scientifically sterile manner but more so as pungent and
visceral sensibility that peculiarly informs our existence. To realize ones finitude may prompt prioritization and revitalization (Carstensen, Issacowitz, &
Charles, 1999; Feifel & Branscomb, 1973; Yalom, 1980), which presupposes
the allocation of values and weight of meaningfulness on particular items and
ventures in life among the many. Moreover, among several key life themes
suggested by respected personalities in history (e.g., Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Will Durant, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., General William
Westmoreland), the following two are indicated: to serve or worship God
and=or prepare for the next (or after-) life and to contribute to something
that is greater than ourselves (Kinnier, Kernes, Tribbensee, & Van
Puymbroeck, 2003, p. 113). These relate to aspects such as beholding a defining singular focus in life as well as coming to terms with noumenal issues.
Tedeschi and Calhoun (2008) spell out that the reminder of ones own
mortality may lead some persons to engage in existential considerations that
may lead to a more satisfactory set of answers to the questions about ones
purpose in life (p. 34). Walton (1996), who faced the abrupt deaths of
two teenage sons in one instance, extended to readers: My prayer for you
is . . . that both your life and your death will be greatly enhanced by the
perspectives that enter your life when a loved one exits your life (p. 93).
In a publication the following year, Walton (1997) conveyed:
Every person who dies gives a priceless gift to those who stay behind.
That gift is awareness of death and its manifold implications for our lives.

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Death awareness is about living. It brings the maturity we need to live our
lives with wisdom and joy . . . to stop cringing at the thought of eventual
death . . . and start living with the daily enthusiasm of those who are
packing for the big trip. (p. 102)

POM does not deny the tension of death contemplation. What POM does
profess is that that tension can be used as fodder and food in an increasingly
systematic fashion to prompt unsettling reformative and refining processes
that will only be assuaged upon the adoption of a life- and death-defining
cause.

CONCLUSION
Is it possible to have increasing numbers of mortals report existential growth
via deliberate and frequent contemplations upon impending death? POM
may be a pathway of specific consideration to propel such a direction. To
be sure, POM by itself is inherently powerless. Any constructive outcome
of POM will be based on the degree to which it is exercised and the manner
of its application. This article has sought to introduce POM by discussing its
contextual particularities as well as anatomical components of worldview,
critical contemplation, and a singular life focus that will imbue meaningfulness to our ineluctable fatal end. Pedagogy of mortality is an educative affair
that is lifelong in its course and arduous in its nature. Though it remains
largely a theoretical formulation, it is hoped that additional empirical
research will emerge in time to refine and update this notion of POM.

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Paul J. Moon is a bereavement coordinator at Alacare Home Health & Hospice.

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