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Suggestions On Dying
Like most folks, I did not think much about the end of my life,
but if I had there are big issues that I’m not sure I could have finessed. The main one it’s hard to escape is the second childhood.
The fact is you experience helplessness again and you become more and more dependent on others as you age. The myth is that your volition is gone and it’s inevitable that you will be the done to rather than the doer. That’s not the law and that is not the fact as long as you can stand up for yourself.
In recent years, I’ve been watching the process in my family as I begin to experience it myself. My wife’s mother was stalked by cancer, a terrible disease that came after her body as dementia came after her mind. My mother just made the hospice decision after cancer returned for the third time, the same cancer her mother had and I have.
My peers have made exits more in the manner I pictured for myself. They simply drop from a heart attack or a stroke or have a short battle with cancer. Beyond that, there is a body count that surprises me from gun violence and suicide. That body count may be surprising but it is still sudden.
Three young men had an earnest and serious discussion about starting a law firm together in the hardest place in Texas to start a law firm, the People’s Republic of Austin. That running joke…
