If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children things that touch your soul.
It is old age rather than death that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time.
