Hw - 33 Comments

Harry,

We'll never know enough about things in life, but the similarities in it, help us understand the connections that exist. Your connection with Food and Illness and Dying made me think about what relations there are and your final question to if we spend so little to get sick, why must it cost so much to get better only made think of the "why's" and "how's" in life and what we do as people to understand.

Good Post!
Christian
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Dean,

Your understanding of the dominant of social practices are shared by the many people who make an attempt at figuring out. The process first starts with realizing and then the next to do something about. In this blog post, I would of like to seen what you felt, or did after realizing because your arguments are very much relative, but skating over what your realizing is not entirely completely understanding.

Good Post!
Christian

Hw 31 Comments 3

Hi Dean,

Your focus on the U.S and other nations and their health care system is relevant and probably the most important because of the economic problems we're having because of it, and in your post you clearly bring to light what the main issues are and how other countries are doing right or better. One thing I would've liked to see in your post is the expansion of your thoughts on Price of Medicine and how exactly people cannot afford health care and maybe even a personal story of someone of how they couldn't afford it.

Clear post!
Christian
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Harry,

I agree we all should know a lot more about our health care system, and that we all should have a voice or input in what's happening in it, so how would you do so? I also liked the sense of "getting lucky" you had in your blog because it truly does feel like we're risking it all on chances, "hoping" for the best and most of the time denied it.

Interesting blog!
Christian
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Rigel,

Your essential question is very interesting because already culture is what sets us apart in our society, but we all die the same way. Your insights on how deaths are represented in each different culture shows how similar we are. One thing I would like to have seen in your blog was how one dominant culture vs. another sees the topic of illness and dying, and really focusing on the trials before death instead of after.

Insightful Read!
Christian
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Matt

"Life is a series of moments flashing bye..." Powerful quote and really thought provoking because when we say bye to people, it's to move on and in life we're always moving on to the next, and the memories we have are about the things we have moved on from. Facing death is a sensitive topic that is explicitly shared in this post, one thing I would have liked to see you expand on thought were the views you had on life before the death of your grandmother vs, the actual death of your grandmother and how it has changed you.

Good Job!
Christian

Hw - 32 Final Thoughts

From the start, going into the topic of Illness and Dying was gonna be a learning experience, its a topic that most avoid even though it's all around us and our reactions to it are all completely different. From birth to our development of our conscious, we are taught on how to deal with death or illness depending on what our parents views are. It's a funny thought to see that life is seen as the day our eyes open, but the countdown to death begins at that same moment. What really stuck out to me during this unit was that our physicalities set us apart as humans, the elderly are categorized as the sick or weak, or soon to be dead and our youth is seen as lively and energentic. But our mental stability to see a lot of commonalities with life as a whole brings fourth a sense of connectiveness and a relationship almost all can relate too. Reading Tuesdays with Morrie brought fourth a lot of these interesting "connected thoughts" and as the charatcer, Morrie, who is ill and soon to die, accepts his fate and in return embraces more of the things and people around him to understand the relationships he shares with others. Interviewing my cousin about this topic who has sickle-cell disease, he also sees that life is delicate and in a instant we could dissapear so why not make the best out of things, which is a sense that most people share even if your not sick. For myself, the existential aspect of life has changed because of the experiences I've shared with everyone in this topic and what I've learned from them as well.

Hw - 30 Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project

The feelings I share with the topic Illness and Dying are the majority of what my parent's views are. What they taught me is how I express my thoughts of how I should handle this sensitive topic. I'm not sick or ill or dying at the moment, but what about the views of life a sick or ill or dying person in comparison with mine differ? If not, why could they be somewhat similar?

In Tuesdays with Morrie, the protagonist, Mitch finds difficulty in understanding why his life turned out the way it did and is miserable about it. On the other hand, Mitch's professor, Morrie is suffering from a terminal illness and finds time to embrace his situation making the best out of it. Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else."(p.35) The difference between Mitch and Morrie is simple, Morrie's perspective of life is shaped differently now because of the illness he was diagnosed with and has accepted it for what it is, making the best out of it. Mitch's views on life has become shaped by the materialistic things making him miserable because he does not understand in order to accept the life he lives, he must accept and trust the ones around him first. This tendency to embrace the things around us becomes more and more apparent because we all want to have a certain purpose to others and ourselves fulfilling other peoples and our own needs.

An example of this "embracing things around us" and finding purpose and fulfilling our needs comes up in Viktor Frankl's theory of our "Existential Vacuum" which can be described as filling ourselves with satisfaction by "eating beyond all necessity...seeking power...conformity[etc]." So what would a person with a terminal illness fulfill their neediness with? The care from others? Love and support from family and friends? How much more different is that from a person who doesn't suffer from an illness? Not much. Our physical appearances may entirely be different but our internal emotions and feelings still are commonly shared amongst each other.

But what is my prediction without actually finding out how a person with a illness feels and reacts to the topic of what the meaning of life meant to them? I had to find out for myself. I asked my cousin who suffers from sickle-cell disease which is an inherited blood disorder that affects the red blood cells having difficulty passing through small blood vessels. He sees life as a privilege. A privilege that cannot be taken granted for. "One moment you could be here, and in the next, could vanish." A daily routine is his life he describes is nothing normal to what his friends in school's lives are. He has to make sure that he's fine, does not have trouble breathing and any dizziness or headaches. His friends he describes are normal because they don't have to be careful about anything of those things because it rarely happens to them, but is a commonality for him. What he shares with his friends are typical 13 year old goals which could be, playing college level basketball, becoming an actor or owning their own companies but not yet sure what that company would entitle. When he's with his friends he feels that everything is normal, but when he's at home or being rushed to the emergency room its completely abnormal and its a strange feeling of vulnerability because there is nothing he can do about it. This is where I started seeing what his perspective of what the meaning of life was to him. He explains, "even though I cannot do anything about my condition, why become miserable and isolate myself from everyone. I should make the best out of what I got to make things better." Which is something I share with him as well because what is the point in being miserable about things you can't fight, it only makes it worse. He also says that being the person who you are makes everything better and that it gives himself a sense of individuality that a lot of us always are constantly seeking.

The similarities that my cousin and I share are represented by this tendency of finding a purpose in ourselves and to others whether or not your sick or not sick, but not everyone is like this. Some people do choose to close themselves off from reality whether their sick or not sick, but its something we still share in common as people.

Bibliography:

• "Sickle Cell Anemia, Signs and Symptoms." National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.
  
• "Viktor Frankl." My Webspace Files. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.
  
• Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: an Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print.

Hw - 29 Reading and Noting Basic Materials

Facing Terminal Illness:

Knowing that you or someone else will be facing certain death has to be one of the most traumatic experiences for yourself and to others. Its puts everything in a different perspective that either defeats you or you accept what it is. In "Tuesdays with Morrie", the main character who was diagnosed lugaris disease, Morrie, accepted his illness and decided to make the best out of it. He figured that there was no point in being miserable about what life had to offer to him and that "once you learn how to die, you learn how to live"(p.82)

The Process of Dying:

Seeing everything in different perspective I guess would be apparent to those who face near or certain death. For Beth Bernett, when her husband was diagnosed with cancer, one of her more humorous but deeply true insights were that "when you get sick enough; Dignity goes out the window." Which is true for many because they need to be taken care of like they were at their infant stages and its funny to see how we age from this infant stage to adulthood back to our once previous stages in life. One thing that I also found very true to her speech was that when a family member gets sick, it brings families closer together. Why is that it takes someone to come close to dying, for everyone to come together like that? Is it a tendency to feel sympathetic to others because your own condition is better then theirs? Another thing I realized about Beth's presentation was that when her husband was in the hospital, the hospital had a tendency to curtain the ugly and the beauty of death. They like to coat the truth by telling the "heroic" stuff that you see in Movies and on TV.

Being Sick:

I don't have any personal "own" experience where being sick altered my perspective of things, but close family members and my parents approach to illness and dying shape my general views of how I should approach it. Until I interviewed my parents, they never really talked about illness and dying to me. It was not much of a topic to bring up to me because in their heads any "rational human being should know what to do around someone who's sick; Irrational people wouldn't."

Hw - 28 Partner Comments #2

To Dean:
Dean,

Much different than the other posts I've read, your post set apart from actually visiting someone, but watching someone at a very old age act out in their normal kind of setting. Your multiple perspectives of Chuck Berry and his appearances and the way he played made it interesting and moderately humorous hence the "too old to be playing music." The only issue that I had with post was how brief your description of the concert was and the lack of deep insights. You could of talked about why you think he still performs for people at such an old age, or how desires to play music and becoming ill are connected?

Creative Post!

Christian
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To Harry:
Harry,

I liked reading your post because of the different attitude your family friend had with hospitals and exploiting it at it's best. Mentioning that he found hospital care to be horrid and that he was almost in this alone acknowledging that recovering was going to be long term. One thing that could of been more insightful is if you had asked him about what his approach was before he had a stroke compared to after having a stroke changed his thoughts on illness and dying, or even life itself?

Good Post!

Christian

Hw - 27 Visiting Unwell Person

Unable to actually meet the sick family member I was suppose to be visiting, I decided to call him and ask him about his thoughts and beliefs on the sick and dying and how his condition either sets him apart from the other people he comes encounter with. He's only 13 years old and I wasn't expecting much insight would be coming from him, but I learned a lot more about him. He suffers from sickle-cell disease which is an inherited blood disorder that affects the red blood cells having difficulty passing through small blood vessels.

Unable to see his condition during this interview, I remembered what he previously looked like and from afar, he looks like what any 13-14 year old would look like. Small T-shirt with jeans fitted into his sneakers and a moderately good haircut. Anyone who didn't know him, wouldn't be able to tell he was sickly and even his attitude towards daily life wouldn't resemble those of a person who would have a disease. Knowing about my cousins condition previous to this interview, I wondered why is he so outgoing and "care free-ish"? Why doesn't this disease hold him back from committing to things normal teens would do? To him, this disease definitely sets him apart from other kids, but if they don't know, it's easier to fit in. His encounter with friends and other people who do know are always people worrying and making sure that hes perfectly fine 24/7. He appreciates that, but it gets annoying and when he meets up with friends from school, he feels like everything goes back to normal. Which is interesting because I would think, if I had sickle-cell disease, knowing that people are taking care of me and making sure I'm fine would be normal, and hanging out with friends is something new every time.

I talked him about what his family thinks and approaches his situation and he replied that his mother always worries about him, which is normal and his older brothers treat him anyway a younger brother should be treated. I asked so how are younger brothers suppose to be treated by their older brother(s) and he replied, "that were the most annoying part of the day, but they still love us and I guess the love with my brothers are shown more in a careful manner just because of my condition." Getting to a more touchy topic, he also mentioned to me that when he starts feeling ill, he tries to hide and fight it himself because he doesn't want to make his mother worrying more than anything because he's the supposed "delicate" one and wants to be shown as "strong" and able to handle any situation. At this point, he starts feeling guilty for what he is, because his mother gets worried and sad and it is because of him. He has accepted his condition, and realizes that there no point is crying over it because it's not going away, so why not make the best out of it? This reminded me of what Morrie use to say in Mitch Albom's, Tuesdays with Morrie, "Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else", which implies that being miserable about something that can't be changed doesn't make life any better, and living unhappily is not changing your situation any better and I think this is how my cousin sees it hence his attitude to always moving, playing and fighting with his brothers.

Hw - 26 Looking Back and Foward in Unit

1. "When you get sick enough; Dignity goes through the window." -Beth Bernett
2. Families get closer when another family member gets ill.
3. "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live."-Tuesdays with Morrie
4. "Death ends a life, not a relationship."
5. "If your a rational human being, you should know how to provide care for the sick and dying; only irrational people would not know what to do."

All of these sources have been the most helpful in coming to understand our cultures dominant social practices because each source provided a different experience for me. In the beginning I knew little to nothing about our health care system and how people reacted to ill and dying, I only knew what I knew. Learning from these variety of people and sources, I have gained a better insight and more experience in this kind of topic and that the social practices people share, are either similar or completely different but they all result in caring for another.

For the last two weeks we have in this unit I would like to know about other countries health care systems, which ones are better or worse then America's health care system and why. I would like to know this because our Country puts on this front there we're so powerful but on a list of which country has better health care, America fall's way below where you think it would be. I'd also like to know about the countries who get it right and what type of method they use to have the best health care system and what type of method the country with the worst health care system does.

Hw - 25 Response to Sicko

Precis: In a Country where millions of Americans are too poor to afford healthcare, we still find our selves saying "health care for all." As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer our health care system finds itself overcharging this system that falsly acclaims that we will provide health to all. Health Care can easily be accessable, but little less then impossible to afford if your middle class and down. Compared to Canada, England and France, their health care is free. The people their can walk into any clinic no matter what your situation is, and they will provide you with free health care. Over here in America, we charge $60,000 to reattach fingers, and "in the world of me, not we" that makes complete sense.

To be continued..