Many people believe that when you die, you ascend to heaven as a reward for a lifetime of devotion. That submission to God grants enteral happiness with the people you lost too soon. To me, there is no religion or spiritual world. Death is a black hole of immense nothingness and forgiveness. Nonjudgmental.

There are no one-way stops before my destination. There’s no ending or beginning. Above all, death is as it is, without any pretense or expectations. So, I take no vigil, nor do I bow my head. I’m unhumbled – vain - because I don’t wait for the heavens to assign my value. The only heavens I’m concerned with are the heavens of my people.

I don’t fear death because I know I’m loved. The people I leave behind will determine my legacy long after I’ve departed from this Earth. When I’m cremated, my beliefs, fears, and morals will burn along with my fleshy organs. My energy will disperse into the atmosphere, joining the millions of perished people contributing their love to the expanse of the glittering Milky Way.

My mortal possessions will fall into the hands of whomever they fall, and money will be a nonfactor to me. The only thing that will matter are the thoughts my loved ones send into the troposphere. I don't fear death because I know who I am. The only thing I fear is the absence of feeling at all.