Week 7 we read LifeSmart's Chapter 12, regarding Dying and Spirituality. In this chapter we discussed euthanasia, grief, mourning and most importantly faith and spirituality. Talking about death and discussing it is generally uncomfortable, but when you incorporate spirituality and your personal beliefs, I find that it makes it a little bit easier to discuss.
Frankl's theory of spirituality I liked the best out of the others (Jung & Wilson) I felt I related to it more. And this is why. He broke down the stages into 3 dimensions. The first is the somatic dimension, it motivates you through your basic instincts. The will to live. The second one is psychological dimension, this correlates your personality with your instincts. The third, is noetic dimension, this is where you explore and find the meaningfulness in life. I agree with these stages because the faith and spirituality develops deeper as you age. You believe in your self differently as you become older, you have an instinct to fight and be stronger for your family and you might even be lucky enough to find the true meaning of your life by the end. I liked that he also said we adults are responsible for reinventing ourselves. I love that, because yes we are.
Another topic from this chapter I wanted to discuss was suicide. In my faith, the Orthodox religion, you may not be blessed in a church with proper burial if you choose to take your own life. It is viewed as the most selfish act. Now within the last couple of weeks with two celebrity suicides being made public, designer Kate Spade and foodie, Anthony Bourdain, I believe it has opened up a dialogue between peers, family, coworkers and friends. Well at least I hope it has. The main message was to ask your strong friend how they are doing, not just your visibly weak struggling friend.
Because both of these celebrities seemed fine. Seemed happy and strong enough to continue life.
In the video with Becki Hawkins, she told a story of her brother seeing his friend who had taken his own life, whom her brother had worried didn't go to heaven. And in his near death experience he saw his friend and he saw that his friend was okay, he didn't get banished to purgatory or hell, he was fine. Maybe the friend was just telling him that to make his experience and fear of dying go away. Whatever the case may be, talk to your friends, seek help and there is always more to live for. What are your thoughts on the recent suicides? Would you discuss them in a classroom with students?
I feel the same about Frankl's theory of spirituality. It makes sense to me. In the film with Becki Hawkins, I was surprised and appreciated that she brought up committing suicide and not going to hell and about being good enough to be accepted by God. It reminded me of a story on NPR about a successful minister, Carlton Pearson, who stopped believing in hell and was cast out of the church he started because of it. One of the things that turns me away from religion is the belief that if you don't believe in everything you're told to or you do something you shouldn't, that you will go to hell. Becki said a lot of meaningful things that made death seem less scary, and she had a lot of good advice for us to think about while we are still living.
ReplyDeleteI feel that suicide is increasingly becoming a topic that needs to be discussed in the classroom as well as at home. With what we have seen throughout this class, it is clear that young students already know of the concept and maybe do not feel comfortable asking about it. With bullying a high risk for our youths, we need to create a safe environment to make sure children know all the information and also know healthy reactions and expressions of hurt, confusion, and other social dilemmas. The longer we ignore and deny that suicide is a growing issue in our country, sadly, the more loved ones we will lose.
ReplyDeleteHi Arisa!
ReplyDeleteI too have a hard time contemplating suicide because of my catholic religious upbringing. We are taught that suicide is a condemned sin however, God I believe is more understanding than humans can phantom. I also felt that, as Wilson explained, as we develop we cannot separate religion from spirituality so, we often have misleading beliefs of God's acceptance and the afterlife based on our own biases and interpretations of life and religious practices and beliefs.
Powerful post, thoroughly enjoyed reading. In regards to your questions: I didn't know anything about Kate Spade but I knew (and partly was envious of/admired even) of Anthony Bourdain. I was sad when I heard about it, but then I felt a little angry and a bit of disdain when I found out he had a young daughter, not even with a double digit to her age. Now she will forever think that her dad would rather be dead than see her grow up and go through life. As someone who struggled with thoughts of giving up like that, that response sounds strange coming from me, however I never even made an attempt, because even thought I felt incredibly worthless, I only felt worthless to myself. I was certainly worth something to others. I like to think about the afterlife quite a lot, and I must add one piece of advice I once heard: "If you're a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim, you should be afraid of going to a worse place. If you're a hindu or Buddhist you should be afraid of getting into a worse state when you come back. And if you don't believe you should be afraid of missing who knows how much stuff in the life you cut short. There is no logical reason to commit suicide."
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