shuffling off this mortal coil

It hasn't happened to me in a couple of years, that sudden awareness of my own mortality. I remember waking up one morning and really experiencing for the first time the reality of the finitude of my life. I felt as if I were straddling that line between existence and non-existence, and I could see across the line very clearly. I became acutely aware of everything my senses were taking in knowing that all of it would actually end for me. Up to that point, death had always been that unwanted guest lurking in the corner. The one you can't ask to leave because that would require acknowledging his presence. But this time death took center stage and I had to look. It sent a jolt through my body that I remember to this day.I teach religious education to 9-12 year old kids. In their classroom hanging on the wall above the blackboard in a place of great prominence is the figure of a man who has been tortured to death. I explain to them that the death mechanism in crucifixion is suffocation. The body hangs down so that the lungs start to collapse. The survival instinct compels the victim to push up against the pain of the nails in the hands and feet in an effort to breathe. Eventually the pain of that effort is too great and the victim gives up and suffocates to death.The unwanted guest in the corner of the classroom doesn't get acknowledged and the full impact of the lesson waits for another time.