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Response

Thank you all for your response to my "Death Weighs Heavy" post. My mother has stabalized her weight currently. It is not as good as it could be, but it has not progressed to an emergency level yet. I have the following comments for those of you who were kind enough to comment to that post:

Andrew: Thank you sir, for your message. I appreciate it greatly. Please tell more about the cigars.... brand/quantity, etc. I do enjoy a cigar on occasion (perhaps 2-3 a week). I have been especially partial to Arango Sportsman 350s of late.

Proxima: Also, a very heartfelt thank you. I honestly do appreciate what you are saying. And from an intellectual level, I can see the beauty, grace, and charm in what you have written. The mix of faith and philosophy is very wonderful and important to have. And, believe me when I say that I do hold similar views about LIFE in terms of my faith and philosophy. Yet, there is something so vastly different for my mind to attempt to put the same ideas atop of death. I have never been able to go beyond viewing death as the ultimate loss and ultimate betrayal. I am at a loss on how to change that idea, which seems so truly innate in my soul.

SimplyTim: Wise words sir. I had not visited your site in a very long time. I shall again bookmark you.

Abbagirl47: Unfortunately, both you and I seem to share some similarities in our perceptions on death and dying. I thank you for your post, but wish you and I both felt differently. Deep in the recesses of my mind I am always fearful of the permanence of death, and my most recurrent nightmare is that I am seated in some poorly lit, stark, bare place and I continually witness the last moments of life and the death of each and every person I know, and love and care about. Each in turn, each in sequence. I witness and watch their pain as their life leaves them. I am somehow belted to a chair and cannot move, but am forced to watch these scenes play again and again like an unending reel of film. In my dream, I cannot do anything but watch these scenes for all of eternity. All I feel is the pain and loss of each and every person I know and love. I sob and weep and curse and cry out, for eternity.

The day after experiencing that nightmare, I am almost non-functional, for I am so utterly spent and exhausted when I awaken. If it is a work day, I have a horrid time giving a coherent lecture.

PipeTobacco