Terror management theory (TMT) is both a social and evolutionary psychology theory originally proposed by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski and codified in their book The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life (2015). It proposes that a basic psychological conflict results from having a self-preservation instinct while realizing that death is inevitable and to some extent unpredictable. This conflict produces terror, which is managed through a combination of escapism and cultural beliefs that act to counter biological reality with more significant and enduring forms of meaning and value—-basically countering the personal insignificance represented by death with the significance provided by symbolic culture. - Wikipedia
I read that worm book and thought the theory was pretty convincing - it is definitely one way of looking at human culture - religion, science, consumerism and so on. But the terror of death in my mind is not about my death but that of Bobbit. 48 hours passed, then 72 and 96.
She was still waiting and so was I.
Birder Neil said it was most likely that Son of Bob was no more. But something strange had happened, albeit only once and in the middle of the long wait. I heard robins, looked up and saw a male and a female on the next door sycamore, bowing and bobbing with the male doing that seduction dance. I though that it must be Tiny with Bobbit.
But this hard-working female, Tiny, comes from the scrub south of me... so maybe I saw Mottled Breast with next-door robin.
I don't know.
The pain has been ravaging. After three days, I did a journey, to try to find Bobbit. I was given a sense of joy and the significance of our intimacy. That idea that the emergent third lives on. It is matter of a purely mental kind. A mattering that transcends.
And still, I continue to stare out over the fence. I listen and listen. And the absence is all too present.
My condolences. Such a loss. xx