Prepare to Meet Your Maker
In the 90's one of the controversies that seemed to divide the population was #AssistedSuicide. Two notable examples: #DrKevorkian and #TerrySchiavo. At 26 Mrs. Shiavo was in a persistent vegetative state after going into cardiac arrest. Her husband believed she wouldn't want to live this way, but her family fought every step of the way. Seven years of legal battle before her husband, the legal guardian, was allowed to remove her feeding tube. Hers isn't the only tragedy to result in a ego-battle between family members against each other, or the state. The basic pro-con argument begins with a question. Should a person be allowed to make a decision to choose suicide under certain conditions? Boils down to one simple thing, #BodilyAutonomy. "My body, my choice."
Kevorkian, aka #DrDeath, was either an angel of mercy, or a sinister, opportunistic murderer manipulating people into terminal decisions. He served eight years prison time for his ministrations to the suffering. The difference of opinion, I believe, stems from whether or not an individual had made peace with their own mortality. The ego is terrified of ceasing to exist. Seems natural to unthinkingly project that onto others and prolong the life of someone in a permanent vegetative state. Decisions are often selfishly made to assuage one's own fear of dying.
My mom died of cancer. When she found out she refused chemo and radiation. She said she didn't want to lose her hair. By the time she opted for surgery it was pretty close to the end. I wasn't there when she passed, but a friend of the family told me his version of how it went. Her last moments were filled with the screams of my sister, "don't let her die!" and the violence of CPR and defibrillator on her tiny frame. She wasn't even granted to option to die quietly at home. Mom was afraid, so she may have very well wanted it to end that way, if only to gain a few more unconscious moments.
As a small child I was prone to such trains of thought as "why am I me?" and "When you're dead in a box, do you know it?" I remember being spooked after seeing a book cover bearing a photo of a cemetery. We lived in the country. Death wasn't a stranger: one neighbor poisoned my kitten; my puppy was squished under the car because he fell asleep next to the tire. Of course, the family members and friends of the family who met their demise at random times. The circle of life isn't a bell curve where one end gets an A+, one gets an F, and B, C and D are the part in the middle where everyone lives forever and ever and ever and ever. Death is not the enemy. At some point I fell in love with the idea of knowing death was imminent, going into the wild, sitting under a tree and letting the elements claim me.
Decades ago in Arizona a dude named Doody (sorry) executed some monks, and three others, in a Buddhist temple. At the time I'd heard, or at least imagined, that the monks didn't fight back and were shot in a circle, meditating - consciously being in the moment - as they were shot. Again, and idea I fell in love with. That's the ticket, facing imminent death fearlessly. Like this, if you've got a mass shooter roaming the halls of workplace, the absolute worst things to do are back into a corner, curl into a ball or beg for your life. Kind of like killer dogs, it sets off a primal prey instinct. The best thing to do is run. If you can't run, then you rush the shooter, the whole element of surprise enchilada. Sometimes that works. I saw it on TV :-). Fear isn't a weapon that can be used against someone who has faced the abyss.
Fact: the global elite are actively culling the "herd." People are terrified of minor discomfort as much as they are of death. Is this why they suspend all disbelief and place implicit trust in the very entities that always profit from suffering, illness and death? #Spikeproteins and #pathogenicpriming aren't conspiracy theories. I don't have control over whether an injected person shares those with me against my wishes, via shedding. This is where bodily autonomy comes in. Taking care of one's health is a personal choice and responsibility. If, for instance, the experimental gene therapy shots are made mandatory, then I will exercise the power of no. If it means death, then it'll be on my terms, by my own hand. 2021 is the year I learned what it means to be a sovereign entity, and not property of corporations, billionaires or the state. Awright, done moralizing. The paintings here are by Dr Kevorkian himself. I don't know you, but I love you. Thanks for dropping by.
