Stay with me on this one. It’s got nothing to do with grafitti, and I don’t know where it’s going. The stimulus comes from a Facebook posting from Diane, a woman I met when taking a Foundations (or, maybe, Fundamentals) of Chaplaincy course at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care a few years ago. Diane posted an article by a doctor (Jessica Nutik Zitter, a critical care and palliative care physician at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif.) The article deals with the doctor’s response to the treatment wishes and the mortality of a particular patient. My concern here is not the specific situation reported in the article. Nor is it about the remarkable discussion I found elsewhere on Facebook that day arising from an article defining us as “no more than dead stardust” and the responses it provoked ranging from “We are the only rational beings in the universe” (How rational is that?) to “We are God incarnate” to “Look at the shit we do to our selves, each other and the planet and tell me we are rational or godlike.” Whoever thought that, intermixed with photos of nude women tattooed all over and pleas to respect liberals and complaints that Caucasians get criticized for saying or writing Nigger and recommendations that I be nice to people and be myself at the same time–did I mention videos of 4 year old children dancing, adults playing in the surf and cats doing just about anything–I’d get this roundtable on mortality?
I didn’t…but I did.
Now that I spend more time among my senior peers, I meet fewer and fewer people who are willing to talk about mortality. True, there are two.
- There’s Reverend Doctor Barbara Simpson who runs the Ethical Death Cafe, a group which meets regularly to talk about all the various issues surrounding our passing from this mortal coil while eating delicious home-baked goodies. The website (http://nysec.org/death-cafe-6-18-14) hasn’t been updated in a while, but it’s still informative.
- There’s Howard from the senior center, whose fascination with mortality has led to my reading some intriguing best sellers on the near-death experience and reincarnation.
All the other folks I hang out with nowadays at the local senior center, they just aren’t interested as far as I can tell. They’re more focused on making good use of their time remaining by keeping doctors appointments and getting the most out of their Lincoln Center subscriptions and their children’s guilt. There is one, a woman of 93 or so, who’s prime concerns are with getting a great winter suntan and her daily fill of cigarettes and Jack Daniels. When I once mentioned to her that I am 73, she looked at me in a way I still find curiously ambiguous then said, “Ah, yes. The same age as my daughter.”
But I digress. The subject here is mortality and my lack of anything to say about it. That being the case, I appeal to you. What’s your take on the death of the body? I still remember a dorm mate from way back when proudly and confidently defining death as the inability of the body’s cells to reproduce. What is it to you? Yes, this could very well get you into a consideration of the non-corporeal about us. Words like soul and ethos and aura and–dare I say it–Buddha Mind come to mind. So do such conversation enders as “When you’re dead, you’re dead!” and “What’s on TV?”
What are your feelings, thoughts, intuitions and/or insights into this matter? Use “Comments” below to register those thoughts, feelings, et cetera in hopes of stimulating those of others. Then come back in a week or so to check out the Comments and see what others have thought about what you’ve thought.
As for me, I’ll look too. I’ll take any guidance I can get.
Welcome! 