No man is born an island

Over the weekend I heard an interview with a singer/songwriter who was talking about the darker quality of his music and mentioned that, "We are all born alone and we all die alen." Later, on one of my morning constituationals, a song came on with the lyrics, "We are all born alone and we all die alone, it's what we do in between, blah blah blah..."

I bet you could see me going either way on this topic, huh?

Well the truth of it is that while I may understand and at times even empathize with the sentiments of this saying, it has always bothered me. Why? Because, it's not true. It's not even an exageration masquerading as a truth.

Let's deconstruct the statement, shall we? Any time you start throwing universals around, such as "all", you are just opening yourself up for criticism. So, because I'm feeling in a particularly generous mood, let's dismiss the use of that word for the point of this discussion.
Examining the second part, "...we (all) die alone." we quickly realize that this is not proven, and in fact most people can cite specific examples from their personal life of being present when a loved one has passed on, or knowing of someone who has been present at such a time. As far as I can find, there is no scientific study I can point to and say one option, either being alone or not, is more prevelant than the other. My pop wisdom tells me that either is just as likely.
Taking a look at the first part of the statement, "We are (all) born alone..." you quickly ask yourself what twins might say to this? Or how about kittens? I mean to show this as a poor use of language that doesn't limit it's statement enough to make any sense. Even more importantly, no baby has ever been born without a mother present, if born by traditional methods. There may be some kind of experimental stuff going on, like growing babies in artificial wombs, but I'm willing to bet that there are plenty of scientists and doctors around for those births, too. I've been begging the religious questions, as I don't hink they're worth my time (that can be a whole different blog) but even the virgin birth had a mother.

So, the statement should really read either at, "We are born and we may die alone." Or more contextually as "I feel as if we are all born alone, and that we will all die alone." putting the statement clearly into the realm of the metaphorical and avoiding the ire of hackneyed bloggers like myself.