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.