mushrooms are in for a good year

 they seem to be popping up everywhere. someone was once surprised that we have a mushroom season, but we have a rapid die off of plants in order to prepare for winter and mushrooms are instrumental in dealing with all that biological die off.  the world needs each and every little element to keep balance.  sadly, humans often believe we can control the earth and do everything we can it seems to throw off that balance for our own needs.  in the end though, Mother Nature gets the final say.  the dinosaurs died off and the earth moved on. 

 started a discussion this morning before i left work. the girl brought up the one child in England i think it was the one who the government intervened i think to stop further care and/or transfer of the child to the US for further treatment.  so many focus on this one person or this one patient but really it's the larger picture that needs to be addressed. 

 i know i sound terribly cruel at times. i am for Euthanasia, but not across the board government sponsored euthanasia.  mostly, I'm for folks who are of sound mind having the option of ceasing treatment and having some control over their own end of life care.  we seem to forget in these arguments that we are often keeping folks alive way beyond a time when nature would have, and that is okay.  it's great in many cases.  i mean that is what is happening in the hospitals across the world.  people being given the opportunity to live longer, more fulfilling lives because of medicine...but that does come with some issues.  when do we stop?  for some the answer is never. 

 this is a picture of the space left when the window was removed...i really do not recall the window being this huge!!

 with children it does get pretty sticky, i mean we all love kids and nobody wants to be the one to say enough is enough.  i always think we should be asking ourselves are we keeping them with us because we can't bear to be without them or are we keeping them with us because they still have a reasonably comfortable life here. for sure, this is a choice for families to make, but what happens in society when parents decide that their child is to remain alive when it has become futile for the child? the girl with the tonsillectomy just recently "passed".  she had been declared brain dead years ago, but modern medicine can keep a body functioning well beyond a natural time of death. 

 in truth, this girl has become a science experiment.  a body kept going through artificial means simply because the parents refused to accept the reality that she was gone.  now, the fact is the child did not suffer due to this choice, she was not really capable of suffering.  so it really just becomes an ethical conundrum. 

 mostly, i think of the resources that were used to maintain this life and others like it.  this should be balanced.  so many who would keep people "alive" indefinitely are also opposed to universal health care, opposed to taking in refugees.  many look the other way as boat loads of kids perish of starvation or treatable diseases.  they will go to battle though for this one life.  the kid in England just became the poster child really. i always wonder how many other kids could have had life with the resources that went into the one child. 

 again, i do not oppose maintaining lives of any and all who have severe health issues, I'm just saying we need to be rational and balanced.  we need to be able to accept the loss of loved ones when it is timely.  we need to do our best to choose when enough is enough.  i can't imagine how difficult that must be when it is your loved one and my heart does go out to the families in these situations. there are just so many unrealistic expectations out there. 

 it's just not sustainable.  we have a limited amount of resources.  in the industrialized nations it's becoming survival of the least fit.  that is fine, we have money....despite what folks say we do have money if it's allocated more efficiently, but we will eventually lack the man power to care for all the infirm.  we are creating a situation where eventually we will have more that need care than can give care. 

 so it makes it even more odd that those who seem to want to prolong treatments beyond what is natural and/or rational in some cases are also the same who are against the health care and also against a robust immigration policy and are for curtailing visa admission to our nation. 

 the fact is, if we wish to continue this path of prolonging lives beyond the natural we must be willing to import folks willing and able to care for those people.  that means we need a strong visa program that brings in not just Dr's and Nurses and Science, we need to bring in folks who can clean and cook and do the beside cares. 

 many do not like that we have immigrants and refugees and even illegal immigrants...but they are, at this point, keeping our system alive.  every culture has imported help...in the past many were serf like or slaves, but the fact is, we need others to keep our nation moving forward.  especially if we want to continue to extend lives beyond what nature would have.

 the hole is now closed up.  I'm doing the finish work.  put on primer and now testing paint colors. the outside will need more primer but the weather is making me wait. 

 slept really good today apparently.  had plans to get up and walk dogs, but it's already nearly 5. two nights to go.  last night i was back in PCU.  had a few of my patients back. 

 it's really a matter of not doing less but of not doing more.  of deciding that we have done enough and then allow nature to take back over.  we can do more.  we do, all the time, but there does have to be a balance and an acceptance. 

 we as a society have to decide.  the main problem we have i think is that medicine has gotten to a point where the lines between life and death are blurred.  people can actually be helped to survive for years with only a brain stem...or even less. i do not have the ethical answers and each case is unique, but it is an interesting topic to explore.  one our society needs to explore and come to terms with. 

 our society seems to shy away from any and all discussions of death.  birth, we are great at, but death we are terrible at in most cases.  I'm not sure how to bridge that in our society.  someone like myself appears or would be called cold and unfeeling i guess because i don't say keep everyone alive indefinitely, because i dare to mention the money involved. 

 it isn't about this one life or that one life though.  it's a matter of resources world wide.  how many kids in Africa or Syria or Afghanistan does society look the other way as they die, while fighting for and giving our resources over to one child who has been declared brain dead?  i don't know. sadly, it's a matter of where you are born and what resources your particular nation has.  everyone wants their loved ones to live indefinitely i guess...death is devastating. i wish i could talk to my Mom every day, but i would not wish her to suffer in order for me to be able to do that.

 it's always an interesting topic, one that gets heated, one that gets emotional. i am not heartless, i do understand the pain and suffering of loss, i see it at work all the time. 

 it just seems like we need to do better.  we need to prepare each other for loss better.  we need to accept the end of life better. 

 i always think that when we get to the other side we will be questioned.  not just about how we treated each other in life, but how we treated our loved ones in death.

 will God ask us why we allowed our loved ones to suffer?  will God ask us why we kept our loved ones alive when it was clear it was time for them to rejoin the spirit world?  is this part of our test here on earth? 

 there is no more difficult thing than being selfless in death.  in putting our desires and pain aside for the benefit of those we love.

 i just believe more and more that we will be asked these questions in the next world.  that we will be held accountable for not just how we treated each other in life but how we treated each other in death.

 had fun strolling around at the dog park, taking side trails to look for mushrooms. i will need to wander some of my favorite mushroom spots and hunt for new ones.  not sure why i love taking mushroom pictures so much.  it's always a treat though.

 hopefully i do not offend with my discussion of death.  i just see a lot of death and i see all the ethics that float around it.  there are no easy answers.  it's worthy of a discussion though.

 better go toss the tennis ball for these dogs and get ready for work. 

thankful for:  A. medicine and that we can bring extra time to folks, even to folks who do not follow the advice of those in medicine or do not do the basics to keep themselves healthy B.  that i live some place where we do have access to life extending care C.  freedom of speech and the freedom to have difficult discussions