We all think about death.
In one capacity or another. Most of us don't have to deal with it, until it happens to some one we know or love.
Frightening stuff, because we are left behind.
My thoughts, considerations and musings on 'Death' was refreshed upon reading Jennifer Worth's, author of 'Call the Midwife', 'In the Midst of Life.'
Her book was a thorough compilation of her experiences in the medical profession as well as the up-close and personal aspects of death.
It's not creepy, or morbid, or dysfunctional in the slightest.
If you are young and rearing for any little surprises life throws at you, nothing can be further from your thoughts.
Mostly because you're just trying to get through the 'tick list' that is your day, looking forward to the things you like best with the folks you like best.
Our culture is composed of 'live life to the fullest' be beautiful, be fast, be FABULOUS DAWLING!
With countless and counting even more ways of doing so.
Our adversity to dying maybe comes from a generation just passing, still more than a little raw in the wake of the First and Second World wars and God keep the soldiers fighting now.
Those deaths are unnatural.
Imposed by leaders trying to justify their validity to their God and Country by sending thousands of men and women to their hideous injuries and deaths. The lucky ones go quickly.
Many soldiers have a 'letter of death', as means of comfort to those left behind. It just shows the amazing attitudes they have in the life their living. They feel they are making valuable controbutions.
Don't any one dare tell them they're not.
But they wouldn't have this history, if world leaders would do the honourable thing.
Here's just a suggestion....just putting it out there, what if they put themselves in the line of fire!
In a room, on their own.
The victor is the one that comes out of the room and declares 'NEXT!'
Until all the leaders and their successors will actually start thinking about what would be appropriate for the people they are supposed to be ruling.
*TANGENT ALERT!*
Sorry.
Death has also been described as the 'angel of mercy'.
Especially for the elderly without hope of a quality of life. Or people horrifically injured or people with a particularly aggressive, incurable disease.
My Aunt died last summer of cancer.
It wasn't localised, it was wide spread.
Here's the thing. She was feeling fine one day, next week along, she felt unwell.
I'm not sure what made her check for cancer, but there you go.
She refused treatment. Not without careful consideration, she just knew it would be prolonged with more misery than she was willing to put herself and her family through.
She was also a registered nurse, well aware of medical advancement and the life prolonging benefits trained doctors can provide.
I would like to think that Do Not Resuscitate, was some thing they discussed to add to the peace of natural death.
Oh, here's a heads up, apparently, a doctor has to put a reasonable excuse for a death not treated as suspicious. Natural Causes, is not a registered reason.
Even if you die in your sleep, you're supposed to have left us with a reason other than just 'peacefully checked out'.
I have been a care assistant in a home for the elderly and a home for disabled adults.
In one case, a 45yr. old woman had been successfully revived in a horrendous car accident where she lost her beloved husband.
She was left a paraplegic, with a colostomy bag.
Unable to communicate except with her eyes. (Some times she would blink out the alphabet until we could guess what she was after.)
She would have painful fitting, howling in her agonising prison.
I would rather have left this world. God's hands are gentle once death has taken us.
Paramedics are duty bound to bring in a patient 'alive.'
Alive is: Breathing.
For doctors, when they take over, can be action of further proportions. (I use this term loosely, as I am not a doctor.)
My mother and I spoke of her 'wishes'. She told me that most doctors believe in euthanasia.
But only a small proportion of them would enforce it if they could.
It conflicts with their 'duty' as well as their moral obligation to human life.
As medical technology gallops along side the Apocalypse horses, morality has become a strained
subject.
I am a Christian, my relationship with the Lord is loving, trusting and respectful.
At my end, I hope to have peace, to leave peacefully and to leave peace behind.
I don't want any jumped up medical ethics sticking down my throat or up my backside or thumping electric currents through me........
Because nobody wants to be around if I wake up!
Just because you can bring someone back to life, doesn't mean you should.
Most people whom are dying, know what they are doing.
With my own Father's illness with M.S. we all suffered his deterioration and wilful self neglect for 25 years. This included alcohol and mental abuse if said alcohol was withheld. He was taken kicking and cussing to rehab, only to come back mean as a half starved raccoon.
Mum had to leave the house most days at 5:00 a.m. to get to the glazier factory where she worked.
Dad died one morning of a massive heart attack.
He was found by home care workers.
The police were called and were waiting for Mum when she got home, exhausted from her manual labour.
That, was more or less ....that.
I can tell you one thing for free though, if anyone had found him earlier and revived him,
Mum would have taken them 'round back and given them a damned good seeing to!
I want to die young.......as late in life as possible.
Love Val X.
Saturday 19 May 2012
Wednesday 9 May 2012
Maurice'Wild Thing' Sendak
Born: June 10th,1928 Brooklyn N.Y.
Died: May 8th,2012 Connecticut
No you haven't stumbled upon an obituary article, but just a few minutes to remember what a truly odd man he was.
I mean this in the nicest possible way, as he is the American story teller that told children 'no lies'.
He felt it was important to be able to relate to them, giving them a voice.
I spent all afternoon familiarising myself with the man and what I knew of his illustrative story telling.
The Sign on Rosie's Door- is a tale straight out of my neighbourhood when I was about eight years old.
If the Rosie in the story book was known to ride down the hill on her Mustang bike with the banana seat/ skate board, only to discover how worlds apart those things really are when you let go of the handle bars........
Heads-up....the seat is for your bum,
Handle bars are for making sure you don't burn-up on re-entry.
If this Rosie had done that, plus all the thing described in his brilliant story, .....he was probably spying on my friend Cathy and I!
Very Far Away- is a story from where even at my age, have not strayed too far away from.
Or indeed as I say this, it feels as though I probably wasn't that odd a child.
Peculiar at best.
Next, was my best memory of his work, was at school, reading 'Little Bear'.
Comfort, pure, unadulterated security.
Sadly, all I could pull up was the telly adaptations that someone had taped off their telly.....in the dryer by the sound of them, then popped them on You-tube.
I have a yellowing paged edition of Little Bear, that I found in a charity shop. It still creates that feeling of safety and accomplishment.
I may have walked to the beat of a different drummer, but I was a damned good reader.
Thanks Mr. Sendak.
Last but not least- Where the Wild Things Are.
My experience of that classic was during my time as a Pre-school teacher.
I loved building the suspense....doing the voices, softly with a hint of mischief, then loud rolling my TERRIBLE EYES!
Then the children rolling them back, because, you never knew.......
One thing for sure, their faces never glazed over and they Always, wanted to hear it again!
I think I may have turned them into suspense junkies.
Again, Thanks Mr.Sendak.
As I heard him say in an interview:
"There is something living underneath it,"
"And you can bury anything you like in it,"
"When you hide a story inside a story, this is what I am telling the children."
26.03.2009
Maurice Sendak on what being an illustrator means to him. (DVD by the Rosenbach Museum and
Library in Philadelphia.)
Beauty, eh?
Love Val X
No you haven't stumbled upon an obituary article, but just a few minutes to remember what a truly odd man he was.
I mean this in the nicest possible way, as he is the American story teller that told children 'no lies'.
He felt it was important to be able to relate to them, giving them a voice.
I spent all afternoon familiarising myself with the man and what I knew of his illustrative story telling.
The Sign on Rosie's Door- is a tale straight out of my neighbourhood when I was about eight years old.
If the Rosie in the story book was known to ride down the hill on her Mustang bike with the banana seat/ skate board, only to discover how worlds apart those things really are when you let go of the handle bars........
Heads-up....the seat is for your bum,
Handle bars are for making sure you don't burn-up on re-entry.
If this Rosie had done that, plus all the thing described in his brilliant story, .....he was probably spying on my friend Cathy and I!
Very Far Away- is a story from where even at my age, have not strayed too far away from.
Or indeed as I say this, it feels as though I probably wasn't that odd a child.
Peculiar at best.
Next, was my best memory of his work, was at school, reading 'Little Bear'.
Comfort, pure, unadulterated security.
Sadly, all I could pull up was the telly adaptations that someone had taped off their telly.....in the dryer by the sound of them, then popped them on You-tube.
I have a yellowing paged edition of Little Bear, that I found in a charity shop. It still creates that feeling of safety and accomplishment.
I may have walked to the beat of a different drummer, but I was a damned good reader.
Thanks Mr. Sendak.
Last but not least- Where the Wild Things Are.
My experience of that classic was during my time as a Pre-school teacher.
I loved building the suspense....doing the voices, softly with a hint of mischief, then loud rolling my TERRIBLE EYES!
Then the children rolling them back, because, you never knew.......
One thing for sure, their faces never glazed over and they Always, wanted to hear it again!
I think I may have turned them into suspense junkies.
Again, Thanks Mr.Sendak.
As I heard him say in an interview:
"There is something living underneath it,"
"And you can bury anything you like in it,"
"When you hide a story inside a story, this is what I am telling the children."
26.03.2009
Maurice Sendak on what being an illustrator means to him. (DVD by the Rosenbach Museum and
Library in Philadelphia.)
Beauty, eh?
Love Val X
Thursday 3 May 2012
A Nation of Hypocrites
I have almost let the week run out again, I was looking for a little inspiration in my almost expired weekly R.T.
The publication has not let me down.
A debate has arisen between Chris Packham and Janice Turner on the touchy subject of urban foxes.
I applaud both for expressing their unyielding opinions.
My question, based on all I have observed on the wiley critter is; what makes them so different from us as an opportunistic creature?
We both have the instinct to make our lives as comfortable as we can manage, to provide for our cubs, and to keep ourselves in one piece whilst doing so. Is that so wrong???
I have to however side with Chris Packham, in his attitude towards the creature.
I feel the fox has been depicted as sly and savagely selfish by our authors of childrens' tales.
As we encroach on the environment that they depend on, they are driven to unusual and inconvenient mischief in order to raise a family.
They will continue to be apart of our lives in this disagreeable way unless we take precautions.
Where I come from, people have to take precautions, so the same thing doesn't happen with raccoons and bears.
Just what do you think the carnage would be like if you don't close the lid on the bear-proof bins?
By the way, raccoons are not cute. They're huge!
Bears are volatile. Also, huge!
Foxes fall into pretty much the same category. Not so big though.
As much as I'd like to keep chickens, I can't.
We live in a high risk/ high probability area of seeing or having our dogs rolling in blinding bliss in their tar-like poo.
I have heard their manic mating cries in the summer that resonate around the neighbourhood.
If screaming roosters could bark, that's what it reminds me of.
Other times, we have been treated to a rare observation of our four legged canines at their best.
Illusive, keeping to the shadows.
Tearing with unbridled thrill and passion at being alive in the sheer joy of running full pelt across a frozen field.
Creeping wearily into a back garden and curling up where the snow does not fall, or where the wind does not blow, under a huge conifer. The timid and cautious male and female take turns to rest.
It seemed I was intruding on a very intimate moment between them.
I have also seen a fox in it's decomposing worst.
I wouldn't like to speculate what happened there.
If the creature was poisoned, what else would be effected?
The amazing kites that have graced us with their presence? Or anything else that eat carrion?
Hmmm, we think we're so smart and righteous in all that we do, without a lot of consideration on how we effect others.
God did not give us wildlife for our general amusement and relaxation. He did not create the natural world around us, so we could tear it down and have our wicked way with concrete in our defining feature of good and bad.
God created the beasts of the air and of the land and of the sea, because together we would be able to share His earth.
In the beginning, before Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, they did not eat meat.
So animals and other creatures keep this land we enjoy ticking over in the cycle of life as God intended.
So just think about that the next time you can't close the lid on your bin full of food past the 'use by' dates.
Love Val x
The publication has not let me down.
A debate has arisen between Chris Packham and Janice Turner on the touchy subject of urban foxes.
I applaud both for expressing their unyielding opinions.
My question, based on all I have observed on the wiley critter is; what makes them so different from us as an opportunistic creature?
We both have the instinct to make our lives as comfortable as we can manage, to provide for our cubs, and to keep ourselves in one piece whilst doing so. Is that so wrong???
I have to however side with Chris Packham, in his attitude towards the creature.
I feel the fox has been depicted as sly and savagely selfish by our authors of childrens' tales.
As we encroach on the environment that they depend on, they are driven to unusual and inconvenient mischief in order to raise a family.
They will continue to be apart of our lives in this disagreeable way unless we take precautions.
Where I come from, people have to take precautions, so the same thing doesn't happen with raccoons and bears.
Just what do you think the carnage would be like if you don't close the lid on the bear-proof bins?
By the way, raccoons are not cute. They're huge!
Bears are volatile. Also, huge!
Foxes fall into pretty much the same category. Not so big though.
As much as I'd like to keep chickens, I can't.
We live in a high risk/ high probability area of seeing or having our dogs rolling in blinding bliss in their tar-like poo.
I have heard their manic mating cries in the summer that resonate around the neighbourhood.
If screaming roosters could bark, that's what it reminds me of.
Other times, we have been treated to a rare observation of our four legged canines at their best.
Illusive, keeping to the shadows.
Tearing with unbridled thrill and passion at being alive in the sheer joy of running full pelt across a frozen field.
Creeping wearily into a back garden and curling up where the snow does not fall, or where the wind does not blow, under a huge conifer. The timid and cautious male and female take turns to rest.
It seemed I was intruding on a very intimate moment between them.
I have also seen a fox in it's decomposing worst.
I wouldn't like to speculate what happened there.
If the creature was poisoned, what else would be effected?
The amazing kites that have graced us with their presence? Or anything else that eat carrion?
Hmmm, we think we're so smart and righteous in all that we do, without a lot of consideration on how we effect others.
God did not give us wildlife for our general amusement and relaxation. He did not create the natural world around us, so we could tear it down and have our wicked way with concrete in our defining feature of good and bad.
God created the beasts of the air and of the land and of the sea, because together we would be able to share His earth.
In the beginning, before Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, they did not eat meat.
So animals and other creatures keep this land we enjoy ticking over in the cycle of life as God intended.
So just think about that the next time you can't close the lid on your bin full of food past the 'use by' dates.
Love Val x
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