This afternoon, I helped a student whose class had just seen a documentary about hospice care and the thoughts and feelings of everyone involved. Even without having seen the documentary, seeing what this class had written was sobering, and it cleared up a few things for me.
I learned that when death come for me, I want to see it coming. Sure, we all know that we're going to die someday, but knowing that I'm mortal is very different approximately how little time I have left. Sure, it's frightening to know that death is imminent, but I'd rather have some time to brace for it rather than being caught be surprise.
I also learned that, however little time I have left, I'd be willing to fight for more, both to help cushion the blow to my friends and family and to get the chance to say goodbye to them. Granted, there is, of course, the afterlife, but still, the separation, however temporal, will still be painful. Plus, I wouldn't mind having a chance to help put my affairs in order, in order to not leave so much of a mess for my family to clean up.
Death is tough. I'm not looking forward to it, and I hope that it's still many, many years away. But still, this documentary got me thinking, and it's probably worth thinking about it. How would we face death? Would we rather see it coming, or would we rather it be a surprise? How hard would we fight to hold on to life, despite knowing what we know about what'll happen with us when we pass on? And if we knew we were going to die, as we all eventually will, how would we want to spend however much or little time we have left?
These are important questions to ponder, and while I hope we won't need they answers to these questions any time soon, they're still good to think about in preparation for the sadly inevitable.
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