Journal Entries
"Dying at Grace"
Posted Feb 22, 2004
"Dying at Grace" Documentary film by Allan King
"Dying at Grace" is a profoundly moving documentary, which follows the last weeks and months in the lives of 5 dying patients. Filmed at Toronto’s Grace Hospital, this film pulls no punches and we are permitted to share the drama-less path of death as it is taken by each of the 5 patients.
Some critics have said that the film invades the privacy of the dying, removing the dignity from their passing. However, each of the patients and their families agreed to allow Allan King to film what most of us rarely experience until it is our turn to walk that final path. I thank them for the gift of allowing us a glimpse at the most private moment of their lives. We can see, but we cannot share the path that must be walked alone.
In many cultures, and certainly in past eras, death is openly seen and shared by the family and even by the community. The face and sound of death was familiar, we were not set apart from it. Or rather, it was not set apart from us. Today, in the West, we are isolated from death, isolated from the experience. We fear death, we hide the dying from us, and, as a consequence, we cannot face what all of us must face.
Each of the patients in the film have come from different backgrounds, lived different lives, and face death in different ways. And yet, in the end, their deaths are remarkably similar. Each’s last breath is indistinguishable from that of another. In death, we are all alike.
http://www.tvo.org/dyingatgrace/
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Feb 22, 2004
Fun little time-waster
Posted Feb 4, 2004
http://alec.at.tut.by/penguin.swf
Discuss this Journal entry [30]
Latest reply: Feb 4, 2004
Unfortunate headlines...
Posted Jan 30, 2004
"BBC apologises as Dyke quits"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3441181.stm
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Jan 30, 2004
Some pretty good links
Posted Jan 3, 2004
Here are a few links I found:
The Door Magazine: http://www.thedoormagazine.com/home.html
Goats.com: http://www.goats.com/
William Shunn, writer, smartass, former-mormon "terrorist": http://www.shunn.net/
Wil Wheaton.net: http://www.wilwheaton.net/index.php
Something Awful: http://www.somethingawful.com/
Garbagethief.com: http://www.garbagethief.com/
Waste of Technology.com: http://www.wasteoftechnology.com/
The Spark: http://www.thespark.com/
Joe Kissell's "Interesting Thing of the Day": http://itotd.com/index.alt
Says God: http://www.saysgod.com/
Discuss this Journal entry [5]
Latest reply: Jan 3, 2004
Get your bumps felt....
Posted Nov 12, 2003
Now I have your attention: Testicular cancer....
This is a little note to the guys out there to do your monthly self-exam and, if you find a bump, GO TO THE DOCTOR!
A friend of mine has just finished treatment for a cancer that he put off getting checked.
A few facts:
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men between the ages of 15 and 35 years old--but it can strike any male, any time.
Testicular cancer is almost always curable if it is found early.
Most testicular cancers are found by men themselves, either as a painless lump, a hardening or change in size of the testicle, or pain in the testicle.
Children born with an undescended testicle have an increased risk of getting testicular cancer regardless of whether surgery is done to correct the problem. However, the surgery should still be done to preserve fertility.
Testicular cancer can be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, surveillance, or a combination of these treatments.
For more information, check this site: http://tcrc.acor.org/
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Nov 12, 2003
Mudhooks: ,,, busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest...
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