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Dignity Where Have You Gone?
“Death with dignity is better than life with humiliation.”
‒ Hussain Ibn Ali.
Currently, and through time it would seem, humankind has been confronted with the enormity of our impermanence and the supposed value of life. The sense of fate that rifles through our conscience as beings is a drama played out in few other beings that roam, swim, or fly above our little green planet.
I admit there are animals possessing an awareness of their end approaching and take action that allows them the dignity of an end to life, but it is in humans that the consideration and embodiment of an emotional attachment and refusal to accept, or even allow the natural evolution of nature that is death.
Struggling to embrace the last moments of finality, many are unable to accept the ending in any form other than panic or retribution.
With the slow and dismal downward spiral that is the dissolution of life through the current pandemic, it is vital for those remaining that the departure be one of dignity, love and giving, not one of desperation, blame, and distraction.
I had the pleasure of owning a high-end restaurant in London many years ago and the honesty of the above sentiment came to me while serving a regular customer. I had the pleasure of their company for many years in the three different venues they followed my aspirations to. It was during a visit to the last venue that shattered me. It occurred sixteen years ago and rests with me as if it was yesterday. I would not want to cheapen or debase the moment we shared at the table by recounting it in minute detail now. (I lack that candid revelatory ability.) Briefly, however, it was when the wife of the lovely couple requested, in a most dignified and polite manner, as befit her, that I take care of her husband as she ‘had a little thing in her head.’ She said, ‘this will be our last chance to meet. It has been a lovely nine years, but he must find a new dinner date. I wanted to share with you the responsibily of caring for him in this, my last public meal. I will be gone next week. It has been a wonderful run. Be sure he keeps running.’
What does one say?
Humbled by her elegance, I was struck dumb. Her hand lifted to my cheek and she stroked it, then told me to…
