Life and Death Musings

At my Men's Group meeting this morning, the conversation was largely about how we view death, lead by Rich. Bob told us how mom is very near the door, and ready to go. Matt told a story about his mother, and how he signed off on not to keep her alive with "tubes." The doctors wanted to put antibiotics or something directly into her heart, but said he told them no, as this was against her wishes. But then they asked about just putting them in the IV then. He relented, acknowledging this was essentially against her wishes, but said OK. And then she was very alive and laughing the next day.

All this talk reminded me of my daughter at my paternal grand father's funeral where she said: "Why is everyone sad? It's not like he's gone."

We come into the world alone and leave it alone. In the middle we're social animals. But I don't think I see things this way. At the beginning (and often at the end I think), we're very close to the veil. We're probably more alone in the world being "social humans" than we are at the start or the end.

There's a Chinese Proverb I should look up for details. It's about a man falls down a well with a dragon at the bottom, but he grabs a branch. As he's hanging there, there are two mice (white and black) sawing through the branch. There's also a drop of honey. The moral seems to be that in our materialistic society: "We're all just licking the honey". However, I see this almost completely the opposite way, in terms of the "be here now" view. I feel much less materialistic. Maybe a little more hedonistic, but less materialistic. If you can let go of your ego and your fate, and just be here now, why not have a lick of honey?

Rich presented another poem, Kahil Gibran On Death.

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.