A Conversation with Elizabeth
1998
Death and dying

From:          LMixson
To:            Elizabeth
Sent:          Thursday, April 23, 1998 8:33 AM
Subject:       Death and dying
 
I also was very busy yesterday and didn't get a chance to write.  I got you note this morning and thought I would get off a quick message before I got busy today.  Tuesday morning my boss left about 10am because he got a call that his wife was in the emergency room.  Yesterday we found out that she had collapsed while buying groceries and was taken to the emergency room.  It turns out that she had a blood clot in the brain and is in quite serious condition.  My boss just turned 50 last week so I suppose his wife is about the same age.  When I was at scouts Tuesday night the father of one of the boys who I have become pretty good friends with had a similar thing happen,  his father in law had a blood clot this past Sunday and died from it the same day.  Julie's mother had something similar last year and she went into a coma and died three weeks later. 
 
I heard about Paul M. wife.[1]  It did seem sudden.  I guess that being vegetarian is no guarantee.  My grandmother has eaten meat and typically a high fat southern cooking diet all her life and she is 97.  More likely genetics or exposure to something is more important.
 
On the way to/from Julie's father's last weekend we listened to a book on tape called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.  A very interesting story.  Amazon.com says the following
 
"it's really a series of Socratic dialogues between man and ape, with the ape as Socrates. The nameless man, who narrates, answers a newspaper ad (``TEACHER seeks pupil...'') that takes him to a shabby office  tenanted by a giant gorilla with a sign that says "WITH MAN GONE, WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR GORILLA?"; and lo! the ape begins to talk to him telepathically.  (Over several days, the ape, Ishmael, as gruff as his Greek model, drags the man into a new understanding of humanity's place in the world. In a nutshell, Ishmael argues that humanity has evolved two ways of living: There are the ``Leavers,'' or hunter-gatherers (e.g., Bushmen), who live in harmony with the rest of life; and there are the ``Takers'' (our civilization), who arose with the agricultural revolution, aim to conquer the rest of life, and are destroying it in the process. Takers, Ishmael says, have woven a ``story'' to rationalize their conquest; central to this story is the idea that humanity is flawed--e.g., as told in the Bible. But not so, Ishmael proclaims; only the Taker way is flawed: Leavers offer a method for living well in the world. After Ishmael dies of pneumonia, his newly converted pupil can only ponder the ape's parting message: ``WITH GORILLA GONE, WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR MAN?''
 
Anyway, if you go to Fla. you might want to get the tape to listen to.
 
Larry

[1] Paul M. is Paul McCartney who’s wife of 29 years who died of cancer.

D & D