And if so, must we be conscious in order to benefit from its purpose? The question arose from a re-reading of a recent Harper's Magazine article "A Good Death: Exit Strategies" by William T. Vollmann, a recounting of his father's death and assisted suicide. Here is the sentence that spawned this thread (regarding Vollmann's father): But once he lost the capacity to understand what was happening to him, the obscene uselessness of his misery .... Vollmann seems to imply that misery has a use and that it is necessary for us (the person who is suffering) to understand what's going on in order for it to be "useful". I like this line of thinking. It supports in a way I guess the mens rea line of criminal responsiblity, the book of Job, and life writ large. It also supports (from what I remember of the article - still re-reading) assisted suicide, for if one lacks the capacity to "understand" the misery then the misery has no purpose, therefore let the poor schmo die already. Other asides.... A coroner in the article says that most Americans, the culture really, doesn't prepare us for the reality of death. When he (the coroner) was a kid in black America in the South, everybody went to funerals. Now, people actually shield their kids from death. He calls a funeral "an opportunity to correct behavior in somebody else". Words of wisdom. The article distinguishes between assisted suicide and euthanasia. Assisted suicide is when you're aware of what's going on; euthanasia is when you're not. Finally, an American doctor, when discussing assisted suicide, seems to try to fool herself by saying that it is not the act of the assisted suicide that kills the person, but the "underlying disease". That is, a terminally ill cancer patient who is assisted in his suicide dies not from the actual final procedure which kills him (pills, iv drip, etc.) but instead dies from the cancer. A doctor from Switzerland, with whom I completely agree, says this: "This is for the person who will not take responsiblity. This is not courageous." I agree. At a minimum we should be rigorously honest with the topic and with ourselves.
agree with OldHippie's take on it. I was reading a Larkin poem about dying the other day and he caused me to muse on the subject with one line about how most things may never happen but this one will.
About 3 years ago, I spent 62 days in the hospital, 30 in ICU. Since then, I have been agonized with Restless Leg Syndrome, probably over 3,000 "charlie horses", broken my arm twice, broken several toes on different occasions, broken my wrist, broken my thumb, broken my foot with stitches, had hallucinations from hepatic encephalopathy, torn muscles in both shoulders, rampant insomnia, torn rotator cuff, afraid to go back to work for fear of not being able to be a dependable provider of services, had moronic laborers f**k me over when I chose to be the boss of remodeling projects, had my house flooded, had my son roll and total a truck, have a special needs child, went to Colorado for serenity and got a heat wave and such bad altitutde sickness that I couldn't even tie a fly onto a tippet, had my lasik eyes degenerate, chronic nosebleeds, went over 2.5 years with no intimacy with my wife, ripped a toenail off, need a knee replacement, and have AT&T cable just to name the items I can immediately recall. Oh, and I can't remember what I had for breakfast. Probably nothing, which might explain why I have lost so much weight since I probably forgot what...something or other. I am on a transplant list, but way down on it. Nowadays you don't get a transplant until you are the next one to die. So, you just have to live with the "misery" until right before you die. Sometimes that is poetic justice and probably in my case, but not in every case. I think I can make a fair argument for misery in my life and I will tell you that the only use for it is so that you can appreciate when it isn't there. Kinda like when the really deep massage is over, I have a special needs daughter and a son who has almost been completely launched. I also have a great deal of life insurance and a large amount of medical bills to look forward to. If you wish to tell me that looking at death as a relief or a cowardly option, I will tell you to go f**k yourself. I have several friends whose fathers have stubbornly clung to life, as if it was "courageous", even though death was inevitable and soon and who acted like their battle was "courageous" (theses guys were 80+ year old ******* alcohol abusers) while they spent their entire life savings on a futile bid to get a few more months in the hospital taking an enormous emotional and financial toll on the widows they left behind. THOSE are the cowards. I am an atheist (although quite spiritual - I just don't believe in gods) and these cheesedicks went to church every Sunday and supposedly had salvation and heaven to look forward to, but... Their only use for misery was to prove their "manliness" in battling it. Kinda like the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail. "Tis but a scratch". Misery did nothing good for them or for anyone in their lives. They certainly were not jumping on grenades to save anyone. Quite the reverse. I often want to be put out of my misery, but when I have a tender moment with my wife or my child achieves something (or is just having a happy moment) or I just have a pleasant conversation with someone at the store, I appreciate those things a great deal more than I used to. I suppose the real answer to the question is that if you aren't conscious of the misery, then it isn't misery. There was a poster here whose sig was "Pain is inevitable, misery is optional" and I think of it often and I have been miserable on more than one occasion and have even loaded a gun, but the greatest part of misery is scratching and clawing your way back up to your feet and giving to others. Even if it means giving Hornfans posters some internet grief so that THEY can grow if they choose to do what I call "turning the crystal". If you have one and hold it up to a light and rotate it, it will be different every minUte (not time measurement, but tiny) twist of the wrist. If you learn some perspective from the misery, then it has a purpose for you. Without consciousness there is no misery possible. Pain? Probably. Semantical argument to be sure, but I suppose we will never know how profound the pain of an "unconcious" person is and whether or not it equates to misery. I know that when in the hospital and in my darkest days I would drift in and out (I have little memory, thankfully) and I expressed desire to be put out of my misery (and I used the word misery).
Damn Nick! You seem to have had a long streak of some really bad luck. I hope that balances out for you soon. Damn!
I edited and added a tiny "twist of the crystal" bit, but the post doesn't reflect that at the bottom.
