This podcast will help you get ready to face the inevitable unpleasant things that will happen in your life -- things like trouble, suffering, sickness, and death -- the death of people you love and your own death.
The Bible says in Revelation 21:4: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
The featured quote for this episode is from Mark Twain. He said, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
Our topic for today is titled "When Death Arrives (Part 2)" from the book, "The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come" by Rob Moll.
Living far from our elderly loved ones also removes us from their declining years as well as from their medical care. Adult children find themselves on conference calls with their parents’ doctors. They fret about their loved ones' safety when their home is no longer a safe place to live or when driving becomes dangerous. They fly a thousand miles for a surgery, never quite knowing what is happening and if this trip will be the last. And, in interview after interview, I’ve learned that relatives who live far away have a much stronger tendency to advocate for aggressive therapy, prompting family conflicts when other members, including the dying person, are opposed.
Not only can our unfamiliarity with death make us incompetent when visiting socially with the ill or grieving, we may also make decisions opposed to the best interests of the people we love. A doctor told me recently of a patient who had lived well for two years after deciding to discontinue her chemotherapy treatment. For much of those two years, this woman enjoyed life. She was able to garden, take walks, spend time with her husband and accomplish some final goals she had set for herself. Her mental powers had declined, however. She regularly offered the same joke to her doctor. "Old age is not for cowards," she chuckled, each time thinking it was an original thought.
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