We’re all going to die. Why is it so hard to talk about it?
Most of us don’t fear death so much as the process leading up to it.
"It’s not as if it’s a big secret that we’re all going to die. It’s just that for many of us, most of the time, it seems like an event that’s going to happen to someone else, some hypothetical me far in the future. Spiritual teachers in many traditions spend a lot of time trying to get people to see the foolishness of this perspective.
“To contemplate dying each day calls forth an instant reordering of priorities,” writes Kathleen Dowling Singh in The Grace in Aging: Awaken as You Grow Older. “Just like a quick and deliberate shake of a kaleidoscope, it creates a whole new patterning, a whole new view.”
I’ve seen that shake of the kaleidoscope happen many times in those who’ve received a terminal diagnosis. Even if they’ve managed to avoid any serious spiritual inquiry in the years leading up to that moment, death’s imminent arrival often focuses their attention. Most are able to let go of the pettiness, the anxieties, and the prickliness that may have plagued them for decades. Lifelong jerks get a little less obnoxious. Introverts start opening up. Extroverts shut up so that other people can speak without interruption. Almost everyone I’ve known near death becomes a little nicer, knowing they’re near the exit..." The Christian Century
He'd been alienated from church for decades. When I asked the issue which caused his withdrawal he waved off the question with an embarrassed nod saying "it was stupid of me." Now, on home hospice care he had his own morphine pump which allowed him to give himself a dose when the pain was too intense. Told that he wanted me to visit he and his wife welcomed me into their home. Though only in his 60's he knew he didn't have long to live. In conversation he was very candid about his situation. Then he said "I'm grateful for my cancer." Cancer as gift? He went on to explain that over the years he'd made decisions which created relational rifts. His cancer gave him opportunity make amends and he was making the most of his limited time. Not long after that conversation he died having reconciled with the church and many others.
"Teach us to number our days that we may gain a wise heart." Ps. 90:12 NRSV
Takk for alt,
Al
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