Slow Death

Dying-as-spiral, with no set moment of absolute death, is in some way true for all organisms—cellular death is a long process, with unknown holistic value to body and spirit.

But getting old, getting sick, losing what we love—we don’t see those events as natural occurrences. We want to ward off that sense of death, no matter what.

I dropped that apple, and, lo, it was putrid and full of worms. Then he spoke the truth: we didn’t have death. We had dead people. We had casualties and we had victims. We had more or less innocent bystanders. We had body counts and sometimes even photos in the newspapers of body bags, though many felt it was wrong to show them. We had “unequal hea

Death itself isn’t inherently a taboo subject. So why are our cultural attitudes toward death and dying fraught with dysfunction and fear?

The authors also aptly observe: “As death has been hidden away in hospitals and nursing homes, it has become less familiar and harder to talk about.”