CAN SOMEONE LOVE A SLOW DEATH?

If I ask you, how would you like to die? Dying with an illness in which you know that you have only a few months left or would you like to die suddenly, maybe while drinking a cup of coffee.

Most of the people would prefer the latter. No one wants to bear the thought of them dying, even though it is inevitable.

But what our lives have always been like? Always running behind material gains, be it good grades, good job, more skills, better lifestyle, and whatnot. Always surrounded by worldly things we have forgotten the true meaning of life; we have forgotten to value small things, to notice them, to cherish their existence.

But if you get to know that you have only 6 months left to live. Would you still behave the same way?

In the movie ‘Philadelphia’ Andrew (Tom Hanks) is a person suffering from AIDS. There was a heart-wrenching scene when he describes what was being played in Opera to his lawyer. The hope, the sorrow, the changes of string, the harmony, the love, the actor was able to feel each and every emotion. He didn’t want to die but he truly lived life when he had to die. There was another irony in that scene. Andrew’s spirit looked livelier than his perfectly healthy lawyer.

It is human psychology; we tend to value things when they go away from us. All of us have heard this statement many times, “live every day of your life as if it is your last day.” But has anybody been able to implement it?

In Viktor E. Frankl’s ‘Man's Search For Meaning’ he wrote about a Jewish woman.

During the time of WWII there was a young Jewish woman who was suffering from a disease. This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But she was cheerful more than ever in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard," she said. "In my former life, I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously." Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, "This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness." Through that window, she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. "I often talk to this tree," she said to the author. The author was startled and couldn’t believe what he heard. Anxiously he asked her if the tree replied. "Yes." What did it say to her? She answered, "It said to me, 'I am here - I am here - I am life, eternal life.' "

There can be sorrow, there can be a pain when you know that your death is coming, but till the time you are alive, you will experience and learn the things which you could’ve never imagined to learn. When your curtains will close, the audience may perceive it to be a bad ending, but you would surely be satisfied.

These were just 2 examples one from Reel's life and another from reality. But they both raise a very intriguing question. Is slow and sometimes painful death better than dying while drinking a cup of coffee?