I have just returned from my Uncle's funeral in the US. As Americans watch an extraordinary intervention by politicians into the life of one woman, I also pondered what is a life as I spent time with my cousins.
15 years ago, my uncle died after a wedding but was revived. When he awoke from his coma, the family were so relieved. But Tim did not awaken. A new Tim entered the life of his family. A man consumed by a rage. A man who had no short term memory. A man whose behaviour became so challenging that he ultimately had to be not only institutionalized but in the final years, all but incarcerated. He was alive but he was not. Tim had gone and in his place was a black hole that sucked at the energy and at the heart of those that loved him. Tim would have been horrified if he could know the pain and anguish that he caused. My aunt is truly a saint. She took it all and kept on going and kept on being loving. My cousins had no closure until his final death a few weeks ago.
So what price life? Just because we can can revive a person, should we? Just because we can keep a person alive - should we? What is life? Is it an end in itself? Or is life also about being a contributor to our community?
It has been the custom of most traditional societies for individuals to take a responsibility for the amount of burden that they place on their community. There is a dignity in deciding when it is time. There is an acceptance in the community that death is inevitable so how you die becomes more important than life itself. Death is surely the greatest experience that we all share.
By denying it - what do we deny? Do we not deny life itself. I find it so sad that we live in a time when we seek to cure death itself. The greatest irony of all comes from the Fundamentalists who seem to most afraid of death. What an irony from a faith that espouses everlasting life after death. What a denial of all the martyrs who chose death over living a lie. What an irony from a faith that was founded upon a man who chose death over a life that could have no meaning!
