My Journal Exercise

Painful as it may be, such experiences brings home the finality of death. Something deep within us demands a confrontation with death. A last look assures us that the person we loved is, indeed, gone forever.” (108) Cable finishes his essay by asking, Tim if his job ever depressed him. Tim in reply says, “No it doesn’t, and I do what I can for people and take satisfaction in enabling relatives to see their loved ones as they were in real life.” (108) After reading this essay I feel as though sometimes we don’t understand death so therefore we do not talk much about it. By reading about what goes on after your loved one dies and is sent to these places to be prepared and ready for burial, it helps to understand why morticians and funeral directors do what they do. Knowing that someone enjoys taking the responsibility in providing that comfort in a sorrowful time makes me appreciate these people in these occupations a bit

I am writing this journal for you so that you will always know our heritage and where you ancestors came from. We may be United States citizens but our culture and homeland is elsewhere. Somewhere I am hoping you will one day visit. Here is a little bit of history about our dear homeland. The island of Puerto Rico (formerly Porto Rico) is the most easterly of the Greater Antilles group of the West Indies island chain. Located more than a thousand miles southeast of Miami, Puerto Rico is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the Virgin Passage (which separates it from the Virgin Islands), on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the Mona Passage (which separates it from the

People die everyday all over the world. In United States, people use hundreds of different words to describe death. Generally, people that grow up in the United States tend to view death as a taboo subject and are seen as a topic that should be kept behind closed doors and contracted with an individual or family. A belief system that so many individuals hold to be true has been shaped over the past century. In this culture, death has become something that is enormously feared and as a result, some people stop living their lives to his or her highest potential because of their fear of dying. The effect that death has pertains to individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicities. But unfortunately, how death is viewed it has become more and

This story is a great reminder that death is nondiscriminatory and inevitable. This story not only reflects the events in his personal life but it explores the ways in how certain situations help shape people’s actions and emotions (Caldwell par

Death. Something we all know is coming, but still fear. If you asked me a year ago I would say that the seminar I’m least likely to take is ‘Zombies, Victims and Other Corpses: Mediating Death in Popular Culture.’ The course description says that the main idea for this course is “examining contemporary visual media images of death and dead bodies, comparing and assessing these with respect to religious, psychological, sociological, political, and biological perspectives on death.” In general, the class was to allow students to compare the different viewpoints on death. However, death for me was just one thing, desolation. This day last year the individual who was closet to me passed away, my grandma. I was left lonely and enraged that cancer

Death is an inevitable and unfortunate part of life that is often met with fear and despair. Some are afraid of the anticipated pain and the uncertainty of the afterlife, while others can accept their fate and see death as part of a cycle in nature. Most of us would prefer to die in the comfort of our homes with loved ones and under their own terms, however approximately 50% of Americans die in hospitals. And although our lifespans continue to climb due to medication and technology, it is those advancements that keep people from leaving this world as they see fit. No matter how a person dies, there is a sense of loss and grief for those who were surrounded or influenced by this person. It is often very hard to cope

I have recently read a book called Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet. I will be telling you what I had liked or disliked about the story and what I thought about the book. This book was written by Jamie Ford who developed the character Henry, who was Chinese American, which went through a time of world war two. Overall I liked the book I found the book to be a really good story which was what I liked about the book.

This writer experienced that death and/or the end of life (EOL) may be sudden or may come after a long illness or injury; nevertheless, handling death is difficult and may be overwhelming. The reality of life is that death comes to all living things; however, humans often operate as if they are immortal, in that, it is awkward to achieve emotional acceptance that someday death is forthcoming. Ray Anderson, stated that “every

In “On Natural Death,” Thomas appeals to the readers by contemplating the subject of death with an academic approach that includes facts, data, and information. Thomas successfully transforms death from an awkward, emotional subject to a more comfortable intellectual one. This engages the readers by placing contemplation of death and dying within the confines of a more manageable and rational context. His gradual exhumation of death eases the audience into pondering the subject in the absence of emotional stress. The essay transitions from the death of an elm tree to that of a mouse. This is followed by Thomas giving a significant amount of attention to a scientific explanation of death, and then finally the description of the near death experience of a human. This use of an academic appeal moves the audience to a comfort zone with the subject of death and circumvents the common response of avoidance. The reader is simultaneously desensitized to the gravity of subject matter and given permission to consider death and dying without the normal societal negative stigma associated with the subject.

1.)     Explain how the answers to the self-inventories in the text concerning facts, attitudes, beliefs and feelings about death reflect our societal understanding or lack of understanding of death. I think that the self- inventory question reflected on both our understanding and lack of understanding about death related topics. Some of the answers to the questions on the inventory I knew without look at the answers, but some of the answers actually surprised me. The question about the death certificate was one of the questions that actually surprised me. I assumed before I did the inventory that every death certificate had a specific cause of death that was given on the certificate. Another answer that

The grand majority of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets are those about deep, passionate love. Those sonnets are about Shakespeare describing the undying love he feels for his girl. In Sonnet 63, however, Shakespeare seems to be referring to an old man. He displays great affection for this man by describing the way that time has worn away the traditional beauties this person. Shakespeare expresses great love and admiration towards this man.

For so long I have been muddling through the ideas and hiding from them because I did not care to discover what the world had in store for me and I can see now, clearer than before, that I should not hide from these feelings. Hiding from the anxiety is not the way to go because it cannot help me in any way. Society may be failing me with how I should treat and react to death by I have promised myself that I would not fail me. I have every intention of looking further into this problem that I have with death and working to a better way of understanding and coping with it. If this class has taught me anything it is that ignoring death does not make it go away, it makes it stronger, lets it hold onto you closer than ever before. I do not want to be a slave to my anxiety over the topic of death and I will not allowed to be so anymore. It may take a while and it may even bring me to places I had never wanted to go, but I will overcome this fear. I will be proactive whereas most of the west has been reactive and I will not forget what history has taught me about death. I will not forget what I have learned in this class and how it proved that death does not have to be a sullen event for mourning, that it can be a celebration of the individuals life and everything they stood for. This class has given me more than I expected, and I am okay with

In spite of this painful occurrence happening to me at twenty-four years of age, emotions such as shock, anger, and guilt, came into play creating chaos. I rerun her death in my mind, yet unable to completely forget the sadness, similar to a synopsis. These feelings can be frightening and overwhelming; however I have learned how to cope and with the realization that life and death are phenomenal both intertwined. I speculate that

The fear I held as a child that my body would become a vessel for other souls to enter was intensified. This was my first impression of my first time in a cemetery and I was not off to a good start. As I grabbed a map to find my way around, I began to dread the walk through the cemetery and having to see all the lives lost, especially those who lost their lives before they even really began. However, to my surprise, as I made my way through the graveyard this feeling of sadness slipped away. The sun began to shine through the clouds of gray and illuminated both the cemetery and my mood. I was delighted to notice that many of the tombstones I encountered read that these lives that were lost were not taken too soon. Most of the people had lived over eighty years and were buried next to fellow family members who also lived just as long. It was nice to see that many people were laid to rest next to family so they wouldn’t have to enter the next life

Death affects people in a variety of ways, often differing throughout cohorts and cultures. Death does not affect everyone in the same way, and often life experiences have a key role in shaping how we view death. Most of these interviewees were from rural Iowa, and could show a contrast from the single interviewee from Tennessee. For this paper, I intend to showcase how several individuals can view death in a variety of ways, and how they can each face their own unique set of problems and resources that can impact their death experience. Among these factors includes life experiences and age.