THE DEATH WATCH-THIRTY-ONE

The inevitability of death is not the issue but rather the fact that the date of that event is known and almost close at hand. In the case of my father, I very well remember the last time I saw him but I didn’t know at the time that he would die within the month. I grieved after the fact, which is normally the case. In the case of my mother, it was just a case of her wanting to die, or just being sick of living, and her never getting past the question, “Why me?”. Again I did my grieving after the fact. What concerns me now is that those around me know I’m dying and their grieving is starting while I’m still alive. I am not suggesting that I hide the facts but I don’t know how I would react in their situation so I have a problem trying to ease their pain. My daughter says I have nothing to apologize for but I don’t want to contribute to their suffering by doing insensitive things.

On a lighter note, here are some definitions and quotes I found interesting.

Soul music is a music genre that combines rhythm and blues and gospel music, originating in the United States. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying."[
Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, typically associated with African Americans of the Southern United States. In the mid-1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning, "soul" was a common adjective used to describe African American culture, and thus the name "soul food" was derived.
The soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching it; and can there be a thought so transporting as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness?
- Joseph Addison
The soul is one with its faith.
- Cyrus Augustus Bartol
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
- Bible, Matthew (ch. XVI, v. 26)
It is only to the individual that a soul is given.
- Albert Einstein