When the end comes where will we be? There's no choosing of how we come in to the world but at least there's 9 months to prepare and for our family to prepare for our arrival. In the spreadsheet of life there's all the easy columns to fill in, Childhood, Teen Years, Adulting, and Retirement, but that last one Death is usually avoided until we can't.
The first encounter for many is when we reach the Retirement Column. The Assisted Living Apartment model is most comparable to the family, Environment, accommodations, community, staff, and services for a comfortable life. It's an easy choice but not the most economical. It's just one choice of many decisions that will be made as we approach the end of life. My friend Amy started a business to help individuals and families encounter these decisions sooner than later. The world wide pandemic brought end of life issues to the forefront for all of us.
Pre-pandemic, Amy lived in Connecticut and her father passed away alone and with dementia in a facility in Arizona. That experience led her to create an advocacy, teaching, consultancy business to confront the evolving challenge of living an "Abundant Death" as she referred to it. The start of my decade in my fifties allowed me to experience health challenges and contemplate my life. When Amy asked me if I would help her record and capture the content of her "Death Conference" I happily agreed but didn't have the budget or all the gear I would preferred to have but wanted to be on the team to capture this important content.
As you can imagine not many folks are willing to show up on a Saturday for a Death Conference. We had a great set of speakers but only about 30 attendees as I remember. There was a fee to attend. It's hard to create a summary of all the speaker content, you really had to be there. Ultimately death comes for all of us but creating an Abundant Death is not on the radar of most of us.
In today's Economy of Life in the world, I think the most telling conversation in addition to abortion, is our lack of respect for dying and MAiD, Medical Assistance in Dying. In Canada, the number of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) cases has risen significantly since its legalization in 2016, with a 15.8% increase in 2023, reaching 15,343 cases and accounting for 4.7% of all deaths in the country. Avoiding suffering seems to be the most discussed position to advocate for MAid. Comfort, abundance, and suffering seem to be conflicting outcomes of life. As the saying goes, "it's not all about you." The column of Death in the spreadsheet of life can be an abundant lesson in unexpected ways for those you love, those that love you. The Economy of Life is the story of you and creating an abundant life and death for someone you don't know. Someone sacrificed for your birth so live abundantly and all that it might require.
Father David, a priest from the Diocese of St. Paul / Minneapolis gave some great insight into death as part of an abundant life.
