On 6 Aug., 22:45, retiredjim34 <[email protected]> wrote: > Fran - why not consider both living deeply and living forever? Jim > I'm really not sure, Jim, it may have something to do with the fact that I generally see death as a natural ending of things - they begin/ are born, grow, develop, mature, run their course and then reach some kind of completion and then decay, die/change into something else. I am completely agnostic about "life after death," maybe I'm just focussed on life before death ;-)
There are two aspects to my present situation which I think influence my position deeply. Firstly, I am forty nine years old and live in the reasonable expectation of having around another thirty years to go (while, on another level, being of course aware that it could all be over tomorrow). It is clear to me that I may well see things very differently in twenty to twenty five years time. Secondly, as a health care professional, I have spent twenty years involved in geriatric nursing and the care of the very seriously chronically ill. In this time I have had enormous experience of death - generally in the context of the inevitable completion of life lived (which is quite different to the experience of those who work, for example, in accident and emergency centres). This experience has undoubtedly helped me to see death as something natural and inevitable. Do I want to live forever? How should I know, I have no idea of what it would be like to live forever! I do know that I want to live now. To go further, I very much relish living now, am very attached to my life. A decade or so ago, things were very different; as a result of a mixture of addiction, depression, marital breakdown, job dissatisfaction, etc., I didn't much care. In fact, I spent quite a period surviving on the default option that, if it all got too unbearable, I could just end it. In the end, I even tried. Strangely (or not), the failed suicide attempt was the beginning of fundamental changes - in a "positive" direction. As I mentioned, I have no idea how I'll see things in ten/twenty/ thirty years time. I hope that my present affirming attitude to and experiencing of life will continue. I like to think of me - when I am very old and tired (well into my eighties, at least :-)) - rounding off my life, seeing it as good and accepting my end with positive resignation. To embrace it; as one poet put it, "to cease upon the midnight with no pain." But when the time comes perhaps I will, in the words of another, "rage against the dying of the light." Francis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
