HW 32- Thoughts following Illness & Dying Unit

After months of studying the dominant social practice(s) on illness and dying, I've come to the conclusion that no matter what approach we have to avoiding death, we are always fighting the "long defeat" (in the words of Dr. Paul Farmer), and that when man is dropped into a world where his time is limited and his brothers and sisters are falling around him, he brings suffering and doom upon the weaker population out of fear, not hatred. It is obvious that nobody wants to die, because we find much beauty and grace in the world around us. However, humans can be very clever beings, and sometimes they will reason to lead others to their demise in order to save their own skin. Why though, would they do this when they realize the irony of their situation? It is because humans are also capable of detachment, and incapable of fully understanding another's point of view.

Although we can try to make death less painful through the idea of religion and process of home hospice, it remains a nightmare because it is the essential unknown. Nobody can or ever will know the meaning or purpose or follow-up to death, and as much as us rational thinkers can try to deduce a theory or comfort ourselves with ideas such as "everything happens for a reason" or "this is only the beginning of the journey" no one person has more credibility on the subject than another. What we DO know for sure though, is that we possess the ability to make a difference beyond our time, creating a "rippling" effect by changing the lives and accompanying the journeys of our children, grandchildren, friends, acquaintances and even enemies, which in many ways CAN make us live on forever. We will live on in the songs sung by the future, the poems written beyond our time, the discoveries that wait ahead- in a sense we ALL contribute to how the world turns out to be each and every day. One day generations hundreds of years into the future will look back and say, "Thank you Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Evan, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here today."