ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between creativity and the knowledge that our lives and our relationships will end in death. It shows that many people, perhaps in one way or another most people, find meaning in their lives in spite of death. In spite of the achievements since the 1950s, ours are death denying cultures accentuated by four centuries of scientific thought and the materialism of the twentieth century. Deaths are often depicted in the visual arts, in opera, or in popular music, but they are usually the deaths of political or religious personages. Personal death has had several major depictions over the centuries. If physical survival were to be the same as actualization of potential, our orientation toward life and attitudes toward death would be fundamentally different. Some creative persons are explicit about the effect of the awareness of death on their lives. The most important reality human beings must deal with is mortality and death.
