ALLERGIC VULNERABILITY HAS INDUCED METAPHORS FOR FINALITY THAT PERPETUATE AS HUMAN(E) DEFENSE MECHANISMS

'Lost', 'Passed', 'Not With Us',  'Departed', 'At Peace', 'With The Lord'......are among the many euphemisms that I've seen and heard, today, for what seems to be a difficult word for so many.....DEAD.......When 'the game is up' and the 'expired' are 'pushing up daisies', having 'slipped away' to 'ride into sunset'....People are just 'Dead'.....  I was annoyed, just minutes ago, when someone asked me, in a conversation about a childhood friend, "Is he no longer with us?", as though he were, now, somewhere else......I replied, "He's dead!".....To which my friend replied, "Well, you don't have to be so Negative about it, Reed!"......I couldn't resist retorting, "What do you think?....that he'll be a Zombie, afterward? Aren't there enough Living Dead already?"........'CLICK'......[phone call terminated from my 'friend's side........]