Tolkien was right. The greatest stories of the ages center on death—how people face it, or how they respond to loss.
In “Braveheart,“ William Wallace takes up Scotland’s cause after his wife is killed by an English soldier. In ”The Return of the King,“ Eowyn risks her life to slay the Witch-king after her uncle Theoden falls. In ”Wonder Woman,” Steve Trevor sacrifices himself to save others, flying away with a payload of poison gas.
The lesson of these stories is clear: When humans stop fearing death, they are capable of extraordinary things. Yet fear of death is common—nearly half of Americans report fearing death.
Many consider this natural, but Socrates disagreed. He called fear of death “the pretence of wisdom,” observing that “no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”
Socrates understood the same lesson of our stories: When we no longer fear the grave, we can live our full life. He was not the only teacher to grasp this truth.




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