Napoles

What Neapolitans Understand About Death (Better Than Most)

Lucia Benavides on Confronting That Deepest of Human Fears

Lucia Benavides

January 23, 2020

Like most people, I’m afraid of death. I take calculated steps to talk about death without actually using the word. I sometimes skip songs like Buddy Holly’s That’ll be the Day or avoid driving down a street where I know there was a deadly car accident. I sometimes use friendlier, less anxiety-inducing words like “passed away” or “left this world.” As if the word “death” were—paradoxically—alive and, if I said it out loud or wrote it down, it would see me and chase me down.

As if, by talking about death, I’d be inviting it.

For the most part, in the Western countries where I’ve lived, I haven’t been alone in feeling this way. But among Neapolitans, I am.