This week’s sermon is less sermon and more of me trying to process things.
A lot has been going on over the past few weeks and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about…not so much death, but about getting older and losing mental faculties. I know someone whose father is in the final stages of dementia and over the course of a few short weeks has gone from manageable to belligerent and violent. I can’t speak to that experience directly, but I know I would not want to deal with it on either side.
I’ve often said that I when I finally shake off this mortal coil, I want to do it as quietly as possible. I don’t want to linger with a horrible, long-term disease that robs me of my quality of life. I don’t want to be kept alive by machines that simply keep my heart beating with no hope of regaining any semblance of life. And honestly, I don’t want all of my social interactions to involve people coming into my room and their first words are, “How are you feeling today?” as I lay in a bed staring into space, unable to speak or communicate in any way. That’s not who I am and it’s not who I want to be.
If it comes to that point, let me go. If I know that my mind is going and I’m going to turn into a completely different person through no fault of my own, allow me to make the decision to end my life on my terms while I am still of sound mind.
AlienCG's Bible Study 
I’ve seen these things up close – dementia, end of life, hospice, etc. Hospice is a blessing. But I’ve also seen people who were in nursing homes that seem like they don’t belong in nursing homes. They may have minor mobility issues and nothing else and their family has mothballed them away in an institution because they don’t want to deal with them so they get to live out their days in a terrible place. I’m hoping I drop while mowing the lawn and then just donate the husk to science and be done with it.
LikeLiked by 1 person