About 10 years ago, I had the ambivalent occasion of attending the funeral of a relative.
A young man who was several decades younger than I was at the time, but whose life had been cut short by a cruel and insidious, a pernicious degenerative disease.
This young was diagnosed with Muscular Sclerosis when he was probably no more than in his twenties.
With the trigger having been the realisation that he was retaining an abnormal amount of fluid in parts of his body where it was not normal
Why was the funeral of this young relative was a cause of ambivalence, you might be thinking?
Well, it was, because it was most definitely a cause of sadness.
But it was also a cause for feeling relief, that this young man did not have to continue to inhabit the parallel world in which he had, was forced to be 'entombed,' for probably for a decade before he physically died.
I say physically died, because we could not tell or be certain that he had not, for all intents and purposes, died years before his heart stopped beating.
Because, how can you know what, if anything is going on in the head, the mental processes of a person who is physically paralysed?
Who has no control over the movements of any of his limbs, his muscles?
Who is not able to talk or give any indication that he is in there, that he is capable of thinking, of hearing, and of understanding what is being said to him?
Who is unable to communicate his wishes to those around him?
Well, it was, because it was most definitely a cause of sadness.
But it was also a cause for feeling relief, that this young man did not have to continue to inhabit the parallel world in which he had, was forced to be 'entombed,' for probably for a decade before he physically died.
I say physically died, because we could not tell or be certain that he had not, for all intents and purposes, died years before his heart stopped beating.
Because, how can you know what, if anything is going on in the head, the mental processes of a person who is physically paralysed?
Who has no control over the movements of any of his limbs, his muscles?
Who is not able to talk or give any indication that he is in there, that he is capable of thinking, of hearing, and of understanding what is being said to him?
Who is unable to communicate his wishes to those around him?
Even worse, how could I or anybody else, know whether my young relative was not being tormented by fearful demons, from whom he could not escape, and of which he could not tell or articulate, or seek protection from?
How could we know that he was not existing in a living, dream like hell from which he could not escape?
To be continued.
How could we know that he was not existing in a living, dream like hell from which he could not escape?
To be continued.
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