26/49: Rehearsing For Death?

     Since the passing of my mother-in-law Faye, discussed in the previous post, the subject of death has been on my mind. Over the past few months, I have also watched my Aunt Judith deal with the return of her cancer in an aggressive form and with the physical pain that this is bringing her, which she has faced courageously. Last but not least, after recently falling and breaking her hip, undergoing surgery, as well as working with all manner of therapists (occupational, speech, etc.), my mother Patricia has been suffering physically -- and mentally, as advancing Parkinson's Disease increasingly impacts her brain.
     For the Stoics in general, and for Seneca in particular, death was not something to be feared. Rather, in Letter 26 to Lucilius, the older Seneca advises his younger friend to "rehearse for death" (quoting Epicurus again). In the forty-ninth letter, Seneca goes on to flesh out this thought:
          "What am I up to? Death is after me; life is on the retreat. Teach me something I can use against that! Don't let me run from death any longer; don't let life run away from me! Encourage me to face what is difficult; give me the serenity to accept what I cannot avoid. Expand the narrow confines of my remaining time. Teach me that the goodness of a life depends not on how long it is but on how it is used; and that it is possible -- in fact quite common -- for a person to have a long life that is scarcely a life at all. Say to me before I sleep, 'It's possible you will not wake up,' and when I rise, 'It's possible you will never sleep again.' Say to me when I go out, 'It's possible you will not return,' and when I return, 'It's possible you will never leave.' You are wrong if you think that it is only aboard ship that 'life is but an inch away from death.' The interval is the same wherever you go. There death is in full view, but everywhere it is just as close to us." [Emphasis added].          
     By the way, I mentioned in my post of 12/2/17 that Seneca has been acknowledged as the original essayist in Western history. However, the passage above suggests that he could also be described as the author of the Serenity Prayer's first draft.
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     Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 26, 8-10, page 94; Letter 49, 9-11, pages 143-144.
     Wikipedia, 12/8/18, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer.