- Yes…Allow Them
Like other characteristics of all living things, there is nothing special or unique about death or dying. Don’t let any custom or tradition make it seem so. Talkless of politics. It is that simple.
As early as elementary three science, pupils are taught the characteristics of living things among which are: MR NIGER D.
M – Movement
R – Respiration
N – Nutrition
I – Irritability
G – Growth
E – Excretion
R – Reproduction
D – Death.
We are told very early in elementary science that life itself is eternal. It neither dies nor come to an end. But ‘living things’ have characteristics which I listed above. Even our religions tell us so too.
Why do we cherish all the others and are so scared of death and ascribe so much eerie to it as though it is not part of the full package contained in the characteristics of every living thing?
Like movement, like respiration, like excretion, death is a character of the living. It is not a full stop that ends the sentence of life, it is a punctuation that begins another sentence.
Even our religions tell us that death is a transition to life in other worlds of bliss or doom. Our Faiths do not tell us that death is a bus stop.
Why then should we be so anxious and ascribe so much legend to what is a necessary end for life to continue?
Why should the living be cautioned from talking about the dead?
Just because the dead are dead?
Why do we make it look like the dead are dead?
Without dying, they will be no living. If things did not go through the transition of dying, could we have had the inception of living? Can we be so selfish not to want to transit to another inception like we were sequenced in the other of things?
The most confident way to approach this particular crucial responsibility of dying is to live right with our conscience and in the proper understanding that dying is a process and not an end.
The good news is that, for decades, lifespans have grown ever longer, delaying the inevitable fact of death. We started the 20th Century without penicillin, but now genomic medicine raises the possibility of increasingly sophisticated treatments tailored to individual genetics.
Now, infectious diseases that were once fatal are curable, several science journals have announced the discovery of cancer cures, while astronauts have announced the growth of organs in gravity-less outer Space to prolong life on earth.
While the bad news is that recent health emergencies have seen a sharp rise in the number of people dying, presenting a challenge about how we should care for those at the end of life.
While this care has been abysmal due to lack of provision of facilities by most of those who are dying now, no mob, either online or offline should throw the caution strings to others on how not to speak ill about the dead as if the dead never lived here with us or as if we are not going to die too.
Thank you.
This opinion is strictly mine.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the publisher of CrossRiverWatch and writes from Lagos State.
NOTE: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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