HW 21B

To Stephanie: Your post seemed very sincere and posed a number of thoughtful questions. One of your insights that stood out to me was, "Now that I think about it if people didn't have to worry about there death and were always surrounded by people who loved them, there passing would be more peaceful an a lot more relaxing." It seems from your post that you surround yourself with people who love you but do you worry about death? Is there actually a direct link between the two concepts or are we all just as worried as the next person? Keep up the good work!

To Megumi: I really enjoyed the depth of your post and thought you hit some key insights, my favorite one was: "...especially because people naturally just tend to hope or want to believe that something good will happen." I completely agree with you, we would like to think that bad things don't happen to good people. We justify our positive thinking based on good behavior but when it comes down to it, it is all up to your body.

To Jay: You posed some interesting ideas based off of what Beth said, one idea that stood out to me the most was, "At some point they need to maintain a distance and fully remove themselves emotionally. Is it better for a doctor to be cold and calculating or emotionally connected?" It makes you wonder the tolerance a doctor has for sadness. If they are loosing a patient everyday I can't even begin to imagine the range of emotions they must experience. Constantly feeling a sense of mourning, as you said though, do they become immune to death? Do you think out of all of the human beings on this planet they are the least scared to die?

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Jay M. said...

Your post is not lacking in detail, which is interesting seeing as you werent here. I found this quote to be especially insightful; "I’ve noticed that when someone dies the people they leave behind often feel as though their lives need to stop. They find comfort in hiding from the world verses just living." I hadn't really thought of that in my analysis of Beth's presentation. That people stop living after a death close to them. But you didn't explain why, or why you think. That would have reinforced your point.

Rebecca (Younger) said...

I think it was interesting how you said that people sometimes look at people who have diseases, as instead of being people, just being a sick body and really only caring for their body.

megumi said...

Firstly, thank you for giving me credit. That was very sweet of you. :)

Your post was very clear and organized. I found at least one insightful comment in each paragraph and found your thoughts very deep and made good connections. A line in particular that I liked was, "It does seem sort of strange though how we often become obsessed with the disease within the person, we pull every string to slow down time, to cure them." I strongly agree with that second paragraph and that statement because it's just what people do naturally when their loved ones get ill. We become persistant in making the person live longer, and end up forgetting at times about who they are as an individual.

Sarah L (Older) said...

My aol account for some reason will not post my comment (Carol)

Sarah, I'm glad you have a blog in which to pour out all of your thoughts, wonderings and insights. You are grappling with a very big and pervasive topic...death and dying. An insight I had while reading your blog is that by becoming aware of the reality of death you have become aware, on a deeper level, how precious the gift of life really is. You are developing an awareness and facing the idea of how brief life is in the scheme of things. Your visual of "opening the door" is a good one. Each day we all have to make a decision to open the door to our life and make the best of it. I think you are doing that and becoming a stronger and more mature person because of your awareness.

Steph's personal political view said...

Your 10 thoughts and insights from the talk were very similar to mine if not the same, so I agree with the ideas you chose to put down. Your insights about how Erik continuing his art work till his late stages of illness were very powerful, I agree with your ideas and think you got into depth and really focused on how he didn't let his illness stop him from doing things he enjoyed. Your last couple of questions confused me a bit and I didn't see how they connected, next time you can possibly explain your question and how it connects. Other then that I'm looking forward to your next post.