> I wonder if the whole "new vigor for life" thing isn't actually just a personality trait coming out.
That would be a pretty sufficient explanation for me.
> There might just be some of us who respond to death with an impulse to, well, fight it.
There are a good number of such people, yeah.
For instance, I think I'll probably respond that way when someone in my family dies. However, I think that because I already know that when Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day come around each year (and Memorial Day was two days ago, so this is sort of fresh), I don't have any impulse to cry and mourn, but instead to go find Nazis and/or terrorists and/or the Grim Reaper and beat the crap out of them.
There might just be some of us who respond to death with an impulse to, well, fight it.
EDIT: I'm referring to Israeli Memorial Day, which was in fact two days ago.