Questions and Answers about Life

[Maricel Evasco]

I don't mean this to be a game, but more an exercise on reflection. There are days we are plagued with a particular question or questions and there are days we ruminate on dealing with answers or decisions already made, and for some, there are days we just question the answers.

 

I was inspired to write this after reading CaseyJo's thread on her cancer.

 

So, the question in my head is: Why does CaseyJo have to go through another bout of cancer again?

 

I know there are no certain answers, but if there are, please share. Otherwise, ask another question about life and hopefully someone could share an answer. You could also give an answer and someone else formulates the question for your answer.

[Bob Stepp]

Excuse me, Ma'am, with all due respect the question you pose cannot be answered with any authority by any one on this earth. I could ask "Why did my wife die at age 56 from lung cancer, or why did my nephew die at age 46 from lymphoma, or why are some babies born to live for only a few hours"?

We don't have the answers. We all start dying the second we are born and we're not promised a rose garden along the way. Every one is fighting some sort of battle....some worse than others....all seem bad when it's happeningto you. What matters is how we respond to it, how we handle it. I sympathize with anyone who is touched by that obscene disease. I will say one thing about my wife.....she was a strong woman...she fought hard for two years.....three rounds of chemo and more radiation treatments than I can remember, but not once did she ask"Why me"?

[Maricel Evasco]

You are right in that my question cannot be answered by any authority at least from an emotional point of view. I'm sure an oncologist would have a different point of view, but my question calls for a existential response rather than a medical one. Perhaps a better way to get a meaningful response would be to focus on the how(s) rather than the why(s).  How do their deaths or Caseyjo's cancer affect you/ us?

 

I think you are more sensitive towards suffering and understanding of the tenuousness of life, more so than many people. Death and the process of confronting death still scares me. I think you would better be able to understand it than me having lived through it with your wife.  You are the stronger one because of the personal experience.

 

 

[Quinn]

Life serves up countless tragedies to a vast amount of people everyday that are unanswerable…

[Jaylee53]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Grand_Rapids,_Michigan_mass_murder

There are no answers for something on this horrific level.

 

[Maricel Evasco]

I agree.

I also believe that some people sail through life while others battle onward.

 

"One ship sails east and another sails west
With the self-same winds that blow.

Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
Which determines the way they go.

As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
As we voyage along through life,

'tis the act of the soul
that determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife."

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

[CWO3ROBBIE]

I have to wonder why people who have lived over 50 years are afraid of death.

I was afraid of death when I was a pre-teen. I was afraid of death when I was a teenager. I was afraid of death until my kids were grown and on their own.

I am no longer afraid of death. The pain often associated with dying? Hell yes. Very afraid. But afraid of death? NO!!! everything in this world eventually dies. i have seen and experienced as much as most people. Do I want to die? Hell no. But I know that it is enevitable and when I imagine the possibilities, I no longer fear not existing. But I am fearful of what the process of getting there might entail. I know that my biological makeup will cause me to resist dying, but I am ready to go when I can no longer enjoy life. I am not religious and do not think that there is an afterlife of which I would be aware.

There are many things that I still want to do. I will try to do most of them.

My advice to casyjo? Do whatever the hell you want.  try to beat the cancer but be aware of what you sacrifice in order to do it. Draw your own line in the sand. Do not let others do it for you.

 

On to the next question.

[TeeBubbaDee]

Ahhhhh... pretty much what Robbie said. He's an old fart, but "sometimes" he knows what he's talking about.

[Maricel Evasco]

CWO,

I'm 44 so I have 6 more years to be afraid of death. LoL

I do have valid reason to fear it now. Who will make sure my kids

(both teens) stay on the right path and finish college? I am their

sole means of support.

 

Also, like you, I don't fear not existing...just the passage between

existing and not existing. I do believe in an after life/heaven, but

I would still live my life the same way if there was none.

 

I hope I never come to the point whether I have to decide to have

someone end my life or to stay alive (an endure pain).

 

I wonder if people's response to death would change if they

knew it would be a painless transition.

 

Is it the pain or thought of non-existing that bothers people more?

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Having dealt with relitaves and fellow solders, I think that the answer to your question has a lot to do with age. when you are young you have a fear of death. the unlived life looms like a monster. When you are older you have contibuted to the continuation and enhancement of the species. You are no longer as fearful  of death. I have come to believe that we are more a product of biology than we like to think. 

[Maricel Evasco]

If we are more a product of biology, and part of the animal kingdom, why do we seemed more wired to fear death than all the other species?

 

I guess since many people fear life (hide in their shells), it shouldn't be surprising that many also fear death. I think it is the same fear that underlies both states.

[caseyjo]

I fear the pain, the suffering, befor the passing.... not the actual time of passing. If there is something called a soul It will find its way to wherever it is going..If not I will never know what hit me at the instant of death...

Animals live to stay alive just as we do...It's instictual....They also remember pain  * suffering. Last week A cat got caught in a net outside my house & was dieing in the sun...I saw it there all tangled & panting..I had to cut it out...It laid in the grass, but hissed when I came near to give it water..It took two weeks befor that cat came back..They may not have the language, but they live their lives to stay alive & they associate certain things with possible death..The reason we fear death is because we have been taught to fear it...

[funesthememorious]

I don't where my dad got it from, but he told me all you need in life was loose shoes, warm toilet seats, and tight p*ssy.