hospital impact

by Nick Jacobs

I'll admit it. I'm a Starbucks addict. It's not a coffee thing. It's the chai tea thing. My cup last week had one of those "The Way I See It" quotes, actually it was #251, and it hit me right between the eyes. "Our greatest prejudice is against death. It spans age, gender and race. We spend immeasurable amounts of energy fighting an event that will eventually triumph. Though it is noble not to give in easily, the most alive people I've ever met are those who embrace their death. They love, laugh and live more fully." This was a quote from Andy Webster, a Hospice chaplain in Plymouth, Michigan.

Actually, that morning I got a call from home that our dog of 15 years was going down hill fast and that it was my turn to handle this situation. Actually, it has always been my turn, but that's another story. So, I took him to the vet, held him close and petted him as they tranquilized him and helped him transition. It was very difficult, but it was absolutely the right thing to do for him.

During that visit, my fourth time to the vet for a similar situation during the last several decades, my mind went back to the Netherlands, to the very moving scene in Soylent Green where Edward G. Robinson visits a euthanasia clinic and is put to sleep amid montages of a peaceful green world and finally to the nearly 78,000,000 people in my generation of Baby Boomers.

My prediction for my peers is that we will change health care in the United States. My prediction is that we will, as a generation, embrace death, and that, as Andy Webster said, we will not give in easily. We will get plastic surgery, exercise, watch our diets, do our yoga, take our fish oil, and laugh, love and live life fully until it's time to go. Just like Brody.