DANCING WITH DEATH

It is early, only 8:37, we have a furnace man coming over to replace the blower motor sometime late Morning and I have an appointment with a doctor at 2:45. If I am going to bog, this is the time to do it.

The doctors appointment is for going over the results of my PET scan. In my last blog I mentioned that I am more sanguine about this one compared to the earlier one, yet I have some anxiousness. I don't want to be faced with anymore treatment decisions. Death is not an issue but how death might occur is. I wouldn't want to die by choking to death.

After one dances with death for awhile, death becomes a friend. It may sound corny and it is hard to explain to those who have no experience with the closeness of it. We become very experienced with the idea of death. The frequent doctors appointments the ongoing treatment is all geared to keep us alive.

Death quits being scary and takes on a restful quality. Of course, I have believed for a long time that there is no death and we just leave our bodies to continue life in spirit. That belief may have some comfort in accepting death............... I don't know............ maybe not much. We all have to deal with the powerful biological urge to stay alive and we don't want to diminish that and we have the unknown staring at us. No matter what we believe it is still an unknown. We can't remember dieing before, unless we have had out of body experiences or something like past life regression.

I think we all have to dance with death and find that it is not just scary but strangely cozy and comforting. It connects us with all those who have gone before us. It connects us with the ongoing stream of life.

I don't think I am nearly done with my dance and I hope to stay in this beautiful body for several years yet, but when we reach our 85^th year the dance becomes cheek to cheek.

It is amazing that we have such denial and fear of death. Are other cultures similar? I minored in cultural anthropology but I don't remember how other cultures regarded death. I have a daughter and daughter-in-law who work with the dieing and their families. It is extremely important work. In our culture it seems like we wait until folks are at deaths door before we learn to be cozy with it.

Yet we are obviously preoccupied with death. News show are filled with people dieing in many unpleasant ways. And the entertainment shows; if it is not a comedy somebody gets killed in every episode. Someone could point out that there is something besides comedies and cops and robbers shows. I know that but we do kill off a lot of people in these shows. I think it may be one of societies ways to deal with the fear of death.

I have thought for several years that we should have groups that meet to talk about death. That has come up in our social group a few times but nothing ever happened. Well the awareness of the need is a start. I think our culture is moving towards the direction of accepting death as part of the natural and loving cycle of life. When we look at Nature from a broad view we see only life; there is no death, life and death are one.

I have been breakfasting on cold leftover pizza while I have been writing this. It hits the spot. We can't find a better reason for living than that. Leftover pizza for breakfast, yum.

Happy Friday everyone!

Love and Peace, Gregg