I am reading a book “On Death and Dying” by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D.
The first chapter is entitled “On the fear of death” and this is is direct contrast to what the Bible says in Hebrews 2:15. Jesus death takes away our fear of death. I am enjoying the book and I am finding many things that are helpful. I never cease to be amazed at the things I find through study. The author says that the Indians would shoot arrows into the air in order to keep the evil, bad spirits away and this may be the origin of the military firing into the air. I don’t know for sure but I certainly intend to check that theory out.
The tombstone may be there for keeping the bad spirits in the ground. There has always been a lot of taboo and fear of the unknown in death and dying but this author says that the increase in medical technology has made death worse in many ways.
“The more we are making advancement in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the reality of death. How is this possible? We use euphemisms, we make the dead look as if they were asleep, we ship the children off to protect them from the anxiety and turmoil around the house if the patient is fortunate enough to die at home, we don’t allow children to visit their dying parents in the hospitals, we have long and controversial discussions about whether patients should be told the truth – a question that rarely arises when the dying person is tended by the family physician who has known him from delivery to death and who knows the weaknesses and strengths of each member of the family.”
There is a lot of great information in this quote. It is obviously a book that was written originally much earlier than 2009. There are few who have a physician today from birth to death, as a matter of fact I do not know such a person.
Ronnie