22 thoughts on “This will cheer you up”

        3. I had kidney stones when I was 13 or 14.
          The memory is of a burning sensation at the end of urinating.
          Then it progressed to me lying on my bed in a foetal position screaming in agony.
          As you say, they did eventually pass on their own.
          I did however have to go for an X-ray to confirm they had gone.
          I had a die injected into my arm.
          The nurse said that I might feel a burning sensation in my face.
          It was like a star had formed in my head.

  5. Time of Death is the name of an E.R. episode from 2004. Ray Liotta was spellbinding in one of the best television episodes ever aired. It blew my mind it was so good. I screen it for my students when I teach Intro to Theatre classes. It prompts vital discussion about not only the craft of story, but the importance of life, family, community and acceptance. You can rent or buy the episode on Amazon. It is terrifying, haunting, inspiring. It is worth the time.

  6. Time of Death is the title of an ER episode from 2004. Ray Liotta was spellbinding. It is one of the finest episodes of television ever produced. I screen it for my students when I teach Intro to Theatre. It prompts vital discussions about the craft of story and mortality. You can rent or buy the episode on Amazon. It is worth your time. Symphonic storytelling.

  7. I recently watched the movie Wit, which starred Emma Thompson as a poetry professor dying of cancer. It was excellent, based on a play which won a Pulitzer Prize and directed by Mike Nichols.

    But I found it a wrenching experience. I’m glad I saw it — but would not watch it again if I could find any way of getting out of it. I literally sobbed throughout.

    It will probably all come back to me in vivid detail when I’ve got something terminal and obviously so.

  9. I’m too much of a pussy to watch it. It looks good though and maybe it will help people understand how important palliative care is.

  10. My wife is a (pediatric) hospice nurse. This stuff is real, and deserves exposure. We will all face death, for ourselves and our loved ones, and ignoring it until it comes does not help us prepare. Perhaps a show like this will get people talking or reading. You can never have too much information. How very strange that a science-oriented web site would discourage people from watching.

    1. It doesn’t discourage people from watching it; it says that I don’t want to watch it. I don’t appreciate your saying what is or is not appropriate for a “science-oriented” website. Surely I’m allowed to have my own opinions.

  11. I interpret Jerry’s words with this that I just read in Steve Weinberg’s essay “Without God”. He ends with a quote from a Philip Larkin poem Aubade-
    This is a special way of being afraid
    no trick dispels. Religion used to try,
    that vast moth-eaten musical brocade
    created to pretend we never die,
    and specious stuff that says ‘No rational being
    can fear a thing it will not feel’, not seeing
    that this is what we fear- no sight, no sound,
    no touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
    nothing to love or link with,
    the anaesthetic from which none come round.

  12. I felt this way about “Amour”, the recent French movie about an elderly couple dealing w/ the wife’s illness and death (at the hands of the husband). I saw it by myself in our local movie theatre and, as the movie ended and I was leaving the theatre, I advised those waiting to enter for the next showing to “turn around….don’t go in there…don’t do this to yourselves.” Of course, I was laughing…trying to lighten the mood of what was a sobering topic for me (after all, I’m only 54). When something is disturbing to me, I like to roll around in it and get familiar w/ how it feels. So, I think I’ll make a point of watching this movie.

    I think mikeb was picking up on your discomfort w/ death and your inclination to avoid the topic. I know I felt that way as I read your post. While you didn’t “discourage” anyone from watching the movie, you didn’t “encourage” your readers to face a topic that is uncomfortable for most of them.

    Personally, that’s what you did for me regarding the topic of there being no god. You helped me face it and live my life w/ this new reality. I would have expected the same regarding the topic of death.

    Now, I’m going to get outside and take a long walk on the gorgeous fall day in Chicago. One day I will die…….but, not now…..probably not today.

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