On Death and Dying.
When I was a little girl, my mother was going back to school to get her masters in counseling. On my 5th birthday, she threw me a party complete with pinata and dancing and then took me with her to the library where she was writing her dissertation on death and dying.
I was quite the precocious child and apparently picked up more of her studies than she thought. Upon returning home I performed an interpretive song and dance entitled "It is better to live than die". After that she got my grandparents to watch me any time she would be in the library for long hours.
It seems remarkably simple to think of my childish views on life and death. I had no real knowledge of morality but knew that there was something about this life that was sacred. I spent a lot of time around death as a child. My mother was a hospice counselor and I was often brought along with her to see clients to cheer them up. Being with people on the cusp of death profoundly influenced my later life. The thing that struck me both then and now, was the vivacity these people had in the face of certain death. They cherished life, every second of it.
It seems now that we live in a culture that is flippant and vapid about the miracle of life. Regardless on religious views, there is something inherently amazing about human life. My son nearly died in utero, had he been taken from me I would not lament the loss of a potential life, I would mourn the loss of my son, just as I would mourn him if he is taken from me tomorrow. If my husband becomes immobile and braindead in an accident tomorrow, I will cherish and love him for all of his life until he leaves me. The time he spends unconscious could not possibly devalue the intrinsic person he remains.
Life is so often trampled and ignored. In our quest for something more, we lose the simple and divine nature of who we are. In the process we disrespect death, in our shallow minds we pretend we are immortal. We abuse ourselves and our relationships. But most disturbingly, we kill our brethren. We kill those who do not meet our standards of life. We kill those who we do not think have the right to live. In our fervent need to improve the quality of our existence, we relegate all others to darkness.
A child knows the value of life. Why don't we?
I was quite the precocious child and apparently picked up more of her studies than she thought. Upon returning home I performed an interpretive song and dance entitled "It is better to live than die". After that she got my grandparents to watch me any time she would be in the library for long hours.
It seems remarkably simple to think of my childish views on life and death. I had no real knowledge of morality but knew that there was something about this life that was sacred. I spent a lot of time around death as a child. My mother was a hospice counselor and I was often brought along with her to see clients to cheer them up. Being with people on the cusp of death profoundly influenced my later life. The thing that struck me both then and now, was the vivacity these people had in the face of certain death. They cherished life, every second of it.
It seems now that we live in a culture that is flippant and vapid about the miracle of life. Regardless on religious views, there is something inherently amazing about human life. My son nearly died in utero, had he been taken from me I would not lament the loss of a potential life, I would mourn the loss of my son, just as I would mourn him if he is taken from me tomorrow. If my husband becomes immobile and braindead in an accident tomorrow, I will cherish and love him for all of his life until he leaves me. The time he spends unconscious could not possibly devalue the intrinsic person he remains.
Life is so often trampled and ignored. In our quest for something more, we lose the simple and divine nature of who we are. In the process we disrespect death, in our shallow minds we pretend we are immortal. We abuse ourselves and our relationships. But most disturbingly, we kill our brethren. We kill those who do not meet our standards of life. We kill those who we do not think have the right to live. In our fervent need to improve the quality of our existence, we relegate all others to darkness.
A child knows the value of life. Why don't we?
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