Would you like to have a terminal illness?

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I'd like to have a bizarre, infectious, acute illness like Lassa fever or eastern equine encephalitis and survive. That would make a great anecdote ("Ted, that really reminds me of the time I caught the Semlinki Forest virus...")

I would greet a terminal illness as my knight in shining armor!
I would be so jazzed. . .I have been undiagnosed AS all my life and I would LOVE to shuffle off this mortal coil, believe me!


Merle

I never thought sinsboldly would say something like that.

why not? I have no family, I have no children. I don't even have a emergency contact should I go to the hospital. My cat goes back to the shelter where I got him, and I have nothing to will anyone. All the stuff I have from my extinct family won't mean anything to any one else, anyway. I think what ever happens after I lose my body will be at least as interesting as what is happening now, I am not so much into suffering before I go, though, but we all die, so. . why not?

Merle

I forgot about that. I did feel that way, maybe sometime around middle school. It might have been when the shrinks started nosing around. I’m not sure of the timing or the connection.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter 19, Sirius was asked how he survived the horrors of the wizard prison.

“I don’t know how I did it,” he said slowly. “I think the only reason I never lost my mind is I that I knew I was innocent. That wasn’t a happy thought, so the dementors couldn’t suck it out of me… but it kept me same and knowing who I am…”

In the prison of my own childhood, I knew that I was innocent.

Somehow, I knew not to let anyone inside. If they knew what was really going on, their attacks would have been more effective. I would have internalized it all and believed that I was basically defective. That is when you lose your mind.

As an emancipated adult, I’ll tell you anything you want to know. The fact that they are still clueless is their choice, not mine.

It’s not humor. It’ about asking honest questions in a safe environment. If you talk about this anywhere else, they’ll put you in a straight jacket.

If you don’t want to help, get out of the way.

Pigs lie to children, for the benefit of themselves.

And by the way, I'm an athiest, and I have stronger moral principals than anyone I know.
I know the difference between rational selfishness, knee-jerking, herd mentality and true morality.
I make an effort to "work out my own salvation."
Organized religion doesn't allow you to do that.


I try. It's not always easy. We're all here because we're hard to understand.

Organized religion has one gigantic flaw: The organization is made of people.

Other than that, there's nothing wrong with it.

Pros and cons, I guess.

I've thought of this kind of scenario many times before. I could say "that's it, it's settled, I don't have to worry beyond this point," which would be kind of liberating, but also kind of limiting. But, I'm pretty sure I'd have an easier time with it than most people would. I believe afterlife is a pretty conceited concept, and all I'd really be missing out on is the unknown, and dealing with the consequent present and past, which have the best likelihood of being unfulfilling for me, anyway.

BUT... you never know. Even if I wind up regretting the extra time more than I would have regretted not having it at all, (not very likely, actually) it would have been stupid to throw it all away without knowing. Frankly, I feel guilty for entertaining these kinds of thoughts when I live in a first-world country with adequate food, medicine and conveniences like a computer when there are so many who have to worry just about staying alive one day to the next. Off-topic, I know, but sometimes it's important to look at the big picture.