Courage in the Face of Death

"Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death."
-- Unknown (taken from "Melt Down" a.k.a. "The Pegasus Forum", David Schofield)

Nice, huh? Found that in a book, and it's something that's got me thinking for a long time. It took me a while to realize the true meaning behind it, that it's about the courage to face death, and to accept it, with serenity, as a fact of life. As a man lives, so shall he one day die. Ashes to ashes, and all that.

Death is one of the things that people fear the most. The only other thing that people fear more is public speaking. (Ever heard someone say "I'd rather die than speak in front of all those people?"). When my grandparents died, they died with a smile on their lips. This is how I would want to die.

I've been following the news lately about Jessica Santillan, the 17-year-old Mexican-American who died recently because of a botched heart & lung transplant. It's really sad that such a bright young girl, who is so full of life has to die, with tubes sticking out of her frail body and (supposedly) one of the best team of doctors in the United States standing watch. Life's never fair, is it? But from what I can gather, she faced the possibility of dying calmly enough. She was scared, but she accepted it. If that's not courage, I don't know what is. After all, courage is not ignoring your fears, it is confronting it and facing it down. Accepting it, and embracing it. Now, that is true courage.

In Memoriam
Jessica Santillan
23 February 2003
www.4jhc.org