Ok, I am going to die. I face it, I know it, I accept it. My hope for you is that you feel the same about your death or will be accepting of it as soon as possible. Life is easier if you can face the fact that you will eventually transform from your current state to a more disorganized one.
Beyond that, if I cut myself, I still have a desire to stem the bleeding. If you cut yourself, I will try to stop your bleeding. I hope if something begins in your body that is a malfunction, you get help from someone who knows how to help you. What is a malfunction? That depends on who you are. If you are a European living 50,000 years ago, you might consider some disabilities or body accidents everyday events that are fate or natural and not something to bother about.
Years ago, Lynn read an article given to her as part of her hospice training. It said that there is a difference between the way different nationalities feel about health, healing, medicine and what one does about an injury or sickness. Some nationalities avoid paying attention to a body problem if at all possible. Some tend to be quite excited about every symptom and invest lots of worry and care on any problem. This interesting article by editor Jacob Weisberg says similar things about medical care today. What we find to need healing is, to some extent, dependent on where we grew up and what society we live in.
I like the way Weisberg accepts that the Americans might not ever accept, say, the Indian view of what needs medical care, how to get medical care and what effective care consists of. They might not be able to accept plans and procedures that other countries use in the context of their view of life, health and death. The debate about what is moral, what is possible, what our duties and expectations are or should be is raging right now.
The little bit I know makes me think that however we arrange matters, we should be able to find a way that every person in the country gets some sort of care when they need it. I hope we can but I realize that defining what needs care and what care consists of is tough. Best wishes to all engaged in the effort!
