Note: I grew up during the Reagan era but I’m not going to comment on his politics and how I felt about them. I don’t want my post to be misconstrued.
So I’ve been watching the news reports of Reagan’s death…the lament, the sorrow, the pain…all felt by presenters, politicans, and the like. Yes, it’s horrible to live with Alzheimer’s. Yes, it’s horrible not to be able to remember your glory in your waning years.
But, I just don’t understand why so many folks are shocked by his death.
Newsflash: He was 93 years old, an age older than most of us will live to. I’m not saying go out and do a jig in the middle of the street as his coffin passes…but come on.
Maybe my views come from my changing opinion about death. Maybe my changing opinion about death comes from my ever-morphing spirituality. I don’t see death as something sad, at least not for the person who has passed. If I was 93, bedridden, and basically senile, I’d be ready to check out right when I caught a gleam of the pearly gates.
But that’s just me.
Comments (10)
Someone asked me on my way into work yesterday how I felt about Reagan’s death. I told him I thought that at that stage of Alzheimer’s, it was probably a relief to him, and his family. Of course, I don’t know this for sure, but I’ve seen people with late-stages of the disease, and it truly is hell on earth. The family has probably already been grieving for years, and he’s finally free from the prison his body had become.
Kevin - At least I know I’m not alone thinking this way. I saw it as perhaps being a relief also. Again, it’s painful to lose someone…but there’s another side.
Wasn’t he practically dead about 10 years ago? His death doesn’t bother me at all. I mean, he lived a full life, ya gotta admit. I doubt he had any regrets (while he still had a brain).
I’m with you. Ninety-three and a shell is not really alive. People get old and die. It’s better than dying very young.
… it’s a pitty that the media hasn’t dared to mention Reagan’s ‘lecagy’ in Latin America! :->
Good point, I think…93 is quite a bit past the usual expiration date. As for the “shock” I think that’s more people’s fear of mortality in general. I agree with Martin though — while he does have quite a good resume in many respects, this tendency to spew a blind haghiography leaves me wondering if people really do have short-term memory. Everything, good and bad, should be acknowledged.
Personally though, I felt more of a sadness upon hearing Ray Charles died…
Rashunda, you might like to read an interview with Jill Nelson in today’s issue of the German online magazine TELEPOLIS:
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17616/1.html (in German *g*)
… and finally also in English:
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/17628/1.html :-)
Thanks for the story link.:-) I’ll read it later tonight.
Girl, I wish you were Nigerian so I could say this in Lagos-speak, but lawd, what is all the fuss about? There *would* have been mad food, drink and dancing in the streets if a 93-year-old dude had died where I’m from, but then, I’m from “the third world” ;-)