Death
I'm writing thig blog because of reading comments made on Youtube by people responding to the Eva Cassidy song, 'Fields of Gold'. I must admit, a majority of this post is from an assembly I took last year...
Call it what you will, one thing is inevitable.
It's difficult to talk about, but I believe it's something as humans we must face straight on. It's so easy to talk about sex, relationships, the evil of murderers and child abusers. But looking at one thing seems to be a huge taboo in this country. So I wish to start with a few definitions as given in the film Patch Adams...
Preview of coming attractions,
First, death:
Demised
Departed
And Defunct
Dead as a doornail
Dead as a herring
Dead as a mutton
Dead as nits
The last breath
Paying a debt to nature
The big sleep
God's way of saying 'slow down'
To check out
To shuffle off this mortal coil
To head for the happy hunting ground
To blink for an exceptionally long period of time
Find oneself without breath
To be the incredible decaying man
Worm buffet
Kick the bucket
Cash in your chips
And if we bury you arse up, we have a place to park my bike.
A while ago, I heard some parents responding to their child's question of 'Where do you go when you die?'
The response was something along the lines of 'They go to heaven and are surrounded by rose petals'
Do we need protection from death?
Or do we need acceptance of it?
Another quote from Patch Adams is in the context of Patch up before a panel to decide whether he had been appropriately dismissed from his medical training, or whether he should be reinstated. The question is asked by the man in charge of the panel and the response is, obviously, from Patch.
What if one of your patients had died?
What's wrong with death, sir? What are we so mortally afraid of?
Why can't we deal with death with a certain amount of dignity and decency and maybe even, God forbid, humour?
Death isn't the enemy here, sir, if we're going to fight a disease, let's fight one of the biggest of them all: indifference.
My faith says one thing to me about death, your belief may be the same, it may be different.
We don't know the day, the year, the place or the reason, and that can be scary sometimes.
When people close to us die, especially when they die young, it can be hard to cope with - partly because of the shock of the suddenness but partly because I believe, in Britain, we don't talk about this. The posts on Youtube just go to prove how people are crying out for the opportunity to discuss death - even if that's just a chance to tell a part of their own story to someone who is open to listening.
Call it what you will, one thing is inevitable.
It's difficult to talk about, but I believe it's something as humans we must face straight on. It's so easy to talk about sex, relationships, the evil of murderers and child abusers. But looking at one thing seems to be a huge taboo in this country. So I wish to start with a few definitions as given in the film Patch Adams...
Preview of coming attractions,
First, death:
To dieDeceased
To expire
To pass on
To perish
To peg out
Push up daisies
Push up posies
Become extinct
Curtains
Demised
Departed
And Defunct
Dead as a doornail
Dead as a herring
Dead as a mutton
Dead as nits
The last breath
Paying a debt to nature
The big sleep
God's way of saying 'slow down'
To check out
To shuffle off this mortal coil
To head for the happy hunting ground
To blink for an exceptionally long period of time
Find oneself without breath
To be the incredible decaying man
Worm buffet
Kick the bucket
Cash in your chips
And if we bury you arse up, we have a place to park my bike.
A while ago, I heard some parents responding to their child's question of 'Where do you go when you die?'
The response was something along the lines of 'They go to heaven and are surrounded by rose petals'
Do we need protection from death?
Or do we need acceptance of it?
Another quote from Patch Adams is in the context of Patch up before a panel to decide whether he had been appropriately dismissed from his medical training, or whether he should be reinstated. The question is asked by the man in charge of the panel and the response is, obviously, from Patch.
What if one of your patients had died?
What's wrong with death, sir? What are we so mortally afraid of?
Why can't we deal with death with a certain amount of dignity and decency and maybe even, God forbid, humour?
Death isn't the enemy here, sir, if we're going to fight a disease, let's fight one of the biggest of them all: indifference.
My faith says one thing to me about death, your belief may be the same, it may be different.
We don't know the day, the year, the place or the reason, and that can be scary sometimes.
When people close to us die, especially when they die young, it can be hard to cope with - partly because of the shock of the suddenness but partly because I believe, in Britain, we don't talk about this. The posts on Youtube just go to prove how people are crying out for the opportunity to discuss death - even if that's just a chance to tell a part of their own story to someone who is open to listening.
Labels: Accept, Death, Inevitable, Patch Adams, Protect
posted by Mark Burgess at
10:10 AM
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