Refuge

This was a really good book. It was a quick read, in my opinion, but nonetheless profound in its sentiments. Throughout, it impressed upon me how very much Westerners struggle to let nature take its course. As with the Great Salt Lake, we try to come up with our own solutions for every 'bad' thing that comes our way. Why can't any of these natural disasters just be natural? Why must we prevent them?

The difficulty is that I haven't had personally devastating experiences related to natural disasters. Or to death, for that matter. The stigma for these two things go hand in hand. So who am I to say that we should just let it happen?

I experienced death the most closely this past Thanksgiving. In Nacogdoches, at Jared's grandparents' house, we sat and stroked Jared's dog's back for hours, while he refused to eat even his favorite food. Hershey hadn't been doing well for a while. He had collapsed upon arrival in Nacogdoches.

On Thanksgiving Day, we took him to the vet to see what was wrong with him. He would hardly move, his breathing was slow and he hadn't eaten for too long. It turned out to be a liver problem. His body was attacking itself. He wouldn't make it much longer. There were a few options. 1) Do a blood transfusion that would be expensive and dangerous for a dog Hershey's age. 2) Let this disease run its course. 3) Euthanize him.

Jared's family struggled to decide that it was best to let the pain end and euthanize him. While we waited for preparations to be made and for the doctor to return, Hershey took his final breath. With a meaningful glance and a twitch, he passed away.

I felt that it was a wonderful way to die. It wasn't necessarily easy to deal with, but the family was able to be there with him in his last moments and said their goodbyes. They didn't kill him and they didn't try to prolong his life. Nature took its course. It was a dignified way to die.

That said, I think Americans could use more exposure to natural death. I think that a lot would change if we became comfortable with our mortality and allowed ourselves and our loved ones to pass on. We are so afraid of loss that we will do anything to prevent it. But by preventing it, other problems arise such as outrageous medical bills, lack of job circulation, and everything that goes along with an ever-increasing population.

In order to accept death, we must also accept that science and technology cannot save us. We must learn to look at the long-term consequences of science and technology before we allow their innovations to reign over us.