God forbid I ever have to face what Brittany Maynard had to face, whether to end her life on her terms or endure a certain, painful death as her inoperable brain tumor ran its course.
But while I fully support her decision to end her life before her cancer could take care of that for her, and I also fully support the notion that she and others facing similar situations should have every legal right to do so, I think there’s something to be said for doing it differently.
You only get one of these – lives, opportunities to breath, to think, to be. It’s up to you how you use it, and for me, I want to use every last second of it, and when it’s time to go, and each of us have a running clock in that regard, I’m going to be scratching and clawing for more than my allotted share.
In pain, in anguish, no matter how much a burden I may be on myself, on others, I don’t care. Hopeless as a situation may be, whatever. When I go, I hope it’s somewhat peacefully, and I should be lucky if that is how it happens, but either way, it probably won’t look that way to whoever might be there, because I won’t be happy about it, my view being that however much time I’m given, it won’t be enough, and I say that if I live to be 110 and long past whatever usefulness I may have had to anybody else.
Whether you believe in God, don’t, have conflicts on those issues, don’t care, there is something to say about life being precious.
I’ve only got ultimate say over one life, my own, and I’ll continue to guard it with, well, my life.
– Column by Chris Graham
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