#HumanStrong
As a concept, death isn't that bad. It's just a marker, noting the end of life. When you are born, your spirit enters your body and you live. When you die, your spirit leaves your body. And your body rots. But you, glorious divine you, go on. The whole eternity of you involved just a small little chunk of mortality, a short opportunity to try out flesh and bone. Imperfect though it may be, life--in a body--is pretty good. Which is exactly why most people avoid death, if possible. Why trade the flawed good of life for an unknown and pretty irreversible death? You don't, not if you can help it. Basically that's the whole purpose of the field of medicine [and nursing]. We try to figure out a way to keep you going, if you are willing and we are able. And that is precisely why two of my patients--one man and one woman--this past week faced death. My first patient no longer was willing. He'd been in the hospital for a month, and then one day decided enough was eno