I can know all sorts of general truths about death and still fail to understand what it means that I shall die. Again, objective facts and abstract theories are one thing; however, what those facts and theories personally mean to me are something else again. Personal meaning is the bull’s-eye of existentialist investigation; in this case, it helps answer the “What does it mean to me that I will die?”
I think that I have a handle on death. But do I? I may have a handle on death, but I seriously doubt that I have a handle on suffering. I do have an abstract concept of suffering, but real suffering is existential suffering. It cannot be experienced outside of the suffering, ala The Death of Ivan Illych.
