Today's little informational nugget reads, "MJ's Dad Files Wrongful Death Suit." And while normally very little on CNN gives me pause, this article does.
I'll cut to the chase: Wrongful death suit? Really? You REALLY want to file a wrongful death suit regarding someone who abused narcotics on a daily basis? Michael Jackson was addicted to sleeping pills AND uppers. Sure, his doctor shouldn't have prescribed them. But filing a wrongful death suit is kind of a slap in the face to the King of Pop himself. I mean, the guy willfully took those risks. As any four-year-old knows, when you choose X, you choose the foreseeable consequences of X.
I'm fascinated by the Western attitude that death is something outrageous. We're surprised every. single. time. someone passes away. It's not like anybody in recent history has escaped that fate. (A shout-out to my good buddy Elijah the prophet, who passed Go and collected $100!) It seems like one out of every three commercials is about some product meant to turn back the clock. We're told we need to fight the battle on everything from wrinkles and osteoarthritis to breast cancer. And I totally get it. Death is not normal. We weren't originally meant for decay and sin. Death is a foreign concept to heavenly beings, which is what God intended for us to be all along. So, of course we're all a little jarred when somebody we love (or just read about in the paper all the time) kicks the bucket. But pretending like we can somehow "cure" death or prevent aging is a ludicrous way of handling the reality that one day, we're all doing to be six feet under. Pushing daisies. Doing the dead man's float. And so on, and so forth.
And this is a real issue in need of discussing because death anxiety runs rampant in our society. Everybody's trying to squeeze the last possible second out of life, not because they're living out their intended purposes but because they're afraid of what comes next. Living in fear is no way to live, people.
The solution to the problem of dying isn't pretending like it's not going to happen. The solution to the problem of dying is finding new life in Christ. It's recognizing that this is only the beginning. I'm not saying that the death of a loved one isn't saddening. I'm saying we've got to stop acting surprised that it happens, and that starts with acknowledging that we're not meant for this life. There's something better on the other side.
You wanna avoid a wrongful death? Try dying the right way. (Ohhh, snap.)
:)
Melanie, I love this: "Everybody's trying to squeeze the last possible second out of life, not because they're living out their intended purposes but because they're afraid of what comes next." Good words here. I love how you flesh out this thought.
ReplyDeleteI think this is why a lot of people aren't very happy in life (myself included some of the time), because we're seeing the sun rise and set thousands of times and not doing anything meaningful between. Makes this fleeting life a bit pointless if you're not willing to do something important with it.
A lot of times it's figuring out what that importance is. In the practical sense, I mean. Outside of God, or rather inside of God, what does the day to day look like that makes a life worth something? You know?
I don't know whether to laugh or give you an "amen, sister!". I think I'll do both! Wow, can you take a such a "heavy" matter and make it lighthearted and funny w/ a punch of truth (I mean that in a good way). I appreciate you sharing this and agree wholehearted! LOL and amen sister!
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaand this is the 5th time I've been forced to read the same post because a certain someone thinks she's too busy remodeling her house and caring for her offspring to write witty blogs that her friends can read when they are supposed to be working. Thanks. For. Nothing.
ReplyDelete