HW 17 - First Thoughts on the Illness & Dying Unit

I was talking to a friend a while ago and she was explaining to me how she gets scared when she's alone because she associates death with being alone. I asked her why she was scared of death. She couldn't give me a well thought out response. I think that everyone is scared of death; that's why we avoid it everyday. That's why we stand on curbs instead of in the middle of the street; why we get vaccinations at the doctors office. But death is inevitable at certain points; why avoid something that you know is going to happen?

Sometimes I'll come home with a cough or a warm forehead and my mom automatically goes for the medicine cabinet. She'll pull out a big white basket full of colorful pill bottles and syrups. about 99% of the time I say "I'll pass" and head to my room for some rest instead. I really hate taking medicine to help "cure" myself when I'm sick. I have never actually done research on medicine or commonly used drugs but I've always felt like I'm putting something into my body that doesn't belong there. I feel like at this point in my life my immune system is strong enough to fight off a virus or bacteria on it's own.

I don't really have a personal view on death. I don't necessarily believe that things happen for a reason but I do believe that whatever does happen occurs because of an outside cause. Death can happen but death has to have a cause in order to happen. For example one's heart can stop beating because an artery got clogged because they led an "unhealthy" lifestyle which can be based off of many different factors. Another example could be that someone got shot which led to them to bleed so much that they died. In the first situation would probably be classified as "natural causes" the second situation would probably be classified as "murder". Sometimes I question how we classify death or the causes of death. What does it actually mean to be dead?

I'm hoping that this unit will help me to better understand death and why my friend was scared of being alone or why I'm so skeptical about medicine.

Some questions I've posed in my head:
What do other people think of when they hear of a suicide? What are the differences between the different standards of death (natural, suicide, murder)? Why do we have such intense emotional reactions to death?

While I'm reading my classmates' blogs, I'm noticing that almost everyone has a personal experience linked to their post. Here goes mine.
My first experience with death was when I was in the fourth grade. My great uncle Abe died. I actually don't remember the circumstances of his death but that I was a little bit shocked. When I first found out I didn't cry I didn't say anything I just went into my bedroom and sat on my bed. I remember I tried SO hard to cry. I thought about what he looked like when he died, I thought about pain and anguish. No matter what I thought about I couldn't cry. I think I got a few tears out and went to sleep. The next day we had a class trip I remember it a Circle Line trip (a 3 hour boat ride). When I woke up I felt normal, like nothing had happened. I started to feel queasy; an image of the Bah-Humbug doormat my Great Uncle kept outside of his apartment year-round popped into my head. I was so confused, why was I thinking about this now? why didn't this come to me yesterday, when I found out he had died? I dismissed my sick feeling and went to school. As soon as I hit 23rd St. (the street his apartment building was on) the sadness hit me. It wasn't until I got to school though that I started to cry. I cried and cried. I cried on the way to the boat. I cried while we were getting on the boat. I cried so much that I literally passed out. I feel asleep on some uncomfortable wooden folding chairs with pleather upholstery attached to the seat.