Friday Discussion: That Place We Go To
When it comes to our opinions about death Ralexwin and I have some significant differences. He is adamant about the use of life support, and has requested that he stay on it until the day he dies naturally (watch he'll now come home and deny ever making that statement). I, on the other hand, most definitely do not want to be kept on life support for any sustained amount of time.
I think this difference comes from a split in our most basic of beliefs. Now, don't misunderstand, we both believe that we will be restored to our bodies after death and we both believe in the same Creator. Our religious beliefs are the same, our views on 'enduring to the end' are different.
Examples:
-What if your entire family were to die? We've known this to happen. My sister-in-laws brother lost his entire family in a car accident. My little sister had a friend whose mother was on her second family. So how would either of us deal with this?
Our answers are quick in coming. His is a simple, endure to the end. Mine is, you'd better put me on suicide watch cause I'd be heading out as fast as I could.
-What if you were taken as a slave? Me. . . simple, do everything you can to escape or die trying. Him. . .try to escape but don't be dumb enough to get yourself killed.
So you might wonder why we feel so differently.
Ralexwin believes that this life is a time for us to experience all there is to experience--to grow and to learn and to become better. Since we only have one opportunity to be here we need to take that gift and embrace it good and bad, happy and sad because once we are done that's it. How would we feel if we end up on the 'other side' knowing that we gave up.
For me, I say--I want to 'go home.' I live this life and I endure to the best of my abilities, but there are certain things that I don't want to deal with. This philosophy comes from a longing to be safe and warm in the arms of my Father in Heaven. In a place where pain and sorrow are gone and I am truly home where I belong. Where there isn't any more to 'endure.'
Of course, Ralexwin has never suffered from depression as strongly as I have, and so his view is blissfully free of the absolute blackness that comes from such incapacitation's.
So I got to thinking. We--all of us in the human race--are raised slightly different than one another. No two people have exactly the same childhood or parents. Even siblings are treated differently depending on the needs and personalities of each. Then there are the myriad of religious (or non-religious) persuasions that form the basis of our lifestyle. Add to those factors the ups and downs that create our past's and what you get is a unique person, unlike any other in the history of the world.
It therefore stands to reason that each of us has a different notion of life, even within the same religion (Ralexwin and I being a perfect example). So what is it that differs each of us from one another? What is your basic tenant on this life and whats to come? Not the one you've been taught, but the one you feel strongest within yourself? Are you an 'endure to the end' sort? Or are you a 'take me home' sort? Or are you something entirely different? How do your philosophies tick?
I think this difference comes from a split in our most basic of beliefs. Now, don't misunderstand, we both believe that we will be restored to our bodies after death and we both believe in the same Creator. Our religious beliefs are the same, our views on 'enduring to the end' are different.Examples:
-What if your entire family were to die? We've known this to happen. My sister-in-laws brother lost his entire family in a car accident. My little sister had a friend whose mother was on her second family. So how would either of us deal with this?
Our answers are quick in coming. His is a simple, endure to the end. Mine is, you'd better put me on suicide watch cause I'd be heading out as fast as I could.
-What if you were taken as a slave? Me. . . simple, do everything you can to escape or die trying. Him. . .try to escape but don't be dumb enough to get yourself killed.
So you might wonder why we feel so differently.
Ralexwin believes that this life is a time for us to experience all there is to experience--to grow and to learn and to become better. Since we only have one opportunity to be here we need to take that gift and embrace it good and bad, happy and sad because once we are done that's it. How would we feel if we end up on the 'other side' knowing that we gave up.
For me, I say--I want to 'go home.' I live this life and I endure to the best of my abilities, but there are certain things that I don't want to deal with. This philosophy comes from a longing to be safe and warm in the arms of my Father in Heaven. In a place where pain and sorrow are gone and I am truly home where I belong. Where there isn't any more to 'endure.'
Of course, Ralexwin has never suffered from depression as strongly as I have, and so his view is blissfully free of the absolute blackness that comes from such incapacitation's.
So I got to thinking. We--all of us in the human race--are raised slightly different than one another. No two people have exactly the same childhood or parents. Even siblings are treated differently depending on the needs and personalities of each. Then there are the myriad of religious (or non-religious) persuasions that form the basis of our lifestyle. Add to those factors the ups and downs that create our past's and what you get is a unique person, unlike any other in the history of the world.
It therefore stands to reason that each of us has a different notion of life, even within the same religion (Ralexwin and I being a perfect example). So what is it that differs each of us from one another? What is your basic tenant on this life and whats to come? Not the one you've been taught, but the one you feel strongest within yourself? Are you an 'endure to the end' sort? Or are you a 'take me home' sort? Or are you something entirely different? How do your philosophies tick?
Comments
My friends 4 month old baby is on life support. I think he's wrong to give up so quickly.
What do you think?
If there was a specific given reason for being on life support ie the heart is on it's way... then I'm okay with that.
If I'm going to end up as a vegetable or be on it for a long period of time then I don't want it.
She watched as the women in the tiny village she was at became pregnant, bore children and then watched them die from malnutrition.
Again in the book 'Three Cups of Tea' Greg Mortenson see's how children in the Pakistani mountains die over and over again.
What I've come to realize from reading these sorts of things is that our concept of life is very different from most of the rest of the world. Where we live terrified of death, terrified of the loss of one of our children... women in other countries (Africa, Pakistan, etc.) embrace death as a fact of life, a part of life neither good nor bad but inevitable.
Does that make the pain of losing a child any less traumatic? I don't think so, but it seems as if it would be less destructive, less all consuming, less shattering.
Perhaps I'm wrong, I hope to never, ever find out.