Be careful, then, and be gentle about death. For it is hard to die, it is difficult to go through the door, even when it opens. And the poor dead, when they have left the walled and silvery city of the now hopeless body where are they to go, Oh where are they to go? [...]
For B: Bone of my bone July 26, 1985 – May 9, 2015 “As of all foods, bread is the most essential, so the thought of death is the most necessary of all works. The remembrance of death amongst those in the midst of society gives birth to distress and meditation, and even more, to [...]
Things are getting worse. There’s no doubt about it. In the midst of the sodomy of Gomorrah, the very fabric of the family has been ripped to shreds and is being trod triumphantly underfoot by those who wear their own Pride with pride. This ascendant Pride is seeking to trample the humble under foot, rubbing [...]
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message “He is Dead.” Put crepe bows round the white necks of the [...]
I am uncomfortable with any feeling that could be labeled as “mystical.” And yet, a few days ago, I had a near-death experience that can only be described as deeply mystical in a really life-changing way. I would not describe myself as a mystic, nor would I say that I am particularly attracted to mysticism. [...]
In a recent article in The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv depicts how Belgium has “embraced euthanasia as a humanist issue.” Not only the terminally ill, or even those in intense pain, but also those suffering from depression may receive “The Death Treatment” and be treated to a “dignified death” through a fatal chemical cocktail. How [...]
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the [...]
G.K. Chesterton remarked on insanity in Orthodoxy. He said “Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that [...]
Who would true valour see, Let him come hither; One here will constant be, Come wind, come weather; There’s no discouragement Shall make him once relent His first avowed intent To be a pilgrim. — Anglican hymn by John Bunyan, 1684 Fifty years ago, on the 28th of January, 1965, a hymn by the [...]
“In my beginning is my end.” ∼ T.S. Eliot In a passage often cited from the Pensees, which the author sets down in grim and graphic detail, Pascal summons the reader to reflect on the awful finality of death. “The last act is bloody,” he tells us, “however fine the rest of the play. They [...]
While walking down Bath House Row in Hot Springs, Arkansas with two friends of mine, both nurses, I found myself involved in a conversation regarding the matter of assisted suicide, personified by the case of Ms. Brittany Maynard, who elected to end her own life prematurely so as to avoid the suffering and perceived indignity [...]
Those who have chained their identities to the opinions of others cannot hear the sounds of their own soul. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a man far more interesting than any of his characters. Robin Williams was far funnier than his jokes. But if “expression” constitutes “the self,” then we will always sell ourselves short. “If [...]
Driving a significant distance to work is a clear and present danger for a hypochondriac. In case you had not noticed, billboards are increasingly about sickness. One drive to work could leave him wondering about the ten most important questions to ask a doctor, suspicious that he might have lupus, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, or certain that [...]
G. K. Chesterton is said to have quipped that when people stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing but in anything. This sad and tragicomic truth is seen in the pathetic life and tragic death of Peaches Geldof, who died in April, aged 25, from a heroin overdose. In an age that has [...]