Death and Dying: The Western Experience

This is the title of one of my classes this semester...it is a class that I have been trying to get into since last year, so I'm pretty psyched that I finally got into it. One thing I'm finding pretty fascinating about this class, other than the actual material covered, is the fact that we are consistently told to ask ourselves certain questions about the pertinent material.

One of those questions which came up in the very first day in class is why do you want to take this course and what are you expecting to get from it. I've been dwelling on the answer to this question for some time now...It occurs to me, of course, that I have been practically desperate to take the course, and in fact spent a good two days consistently (I mean literally for hours at a time) to get into it. But why? What about death fascinates me so? What made this something I absolutely positively HAD to study while I had the opportunity?

I have come to some conclusions, although not at all to the ultimate answer. I know for a fact that it isn't some morbid fascination or preoccupation with death and dying. It isn't because of some recent realization of my definite mortality or that I could possibly die at any moment. It's not because I have some fascination with societal values and beliefs about death and dying...ok, ok, I'm sure you're thinking to yourself 'yes J. Christle, we get it, there's all these reasons that are NOT your reason for taking the course. Why ARE you taking it then?'.

The answer is, of course, that I'm not entirely sure, although I feel that the answer to that question will become a lot clearer in the weeks to come as I weed all the reasons why I am clearly NOT taking the course. I can tell you that the fascination came with my stepmothers sudden passing away and all of the things surrounding death, religion and custom that I encountered as a result. I don't think my reason is ABOUT her per se, as much as I think on some deep subconscious level these happenings raised some type of existential or philosophical questions about the concepts of death and dying within my psyche which I feel a deep need to explore. Stay tuned, I'll definitely throw an update out there if I come to something.

Sorry for the obscurity of this post, I'll try not to be quite so existential in the next one.

On a lighter note, happy Monday everyone!! And boy I'm I ever glad the deep freeze is over for now!! :-p

Cheers