Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, January 12, 2008


The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

- Jack London, author, born Jack Griffith on
this day in San Francisco, 1876



The issue of when to die – and, by corollary, the issue of what is Life and how to live it - is becoming, I think, the issue of the age. At least in countries that have the whatever that allows such questions to come to the fore. I suspect that if you are scrabbling for potato peels in Darfur, there are other things to think about.

As a priest, I often ask people what they want to do when Life becomes difficult, or when the “quality of Life” becomes unacceptable. No one, no one, has ever said to me, “I am going to do everything I can to stay alive, no matter how horrible or painful Life is”. Never. Almost everyone I ask says, “When there is no quality to my life as I determine it, I am out of here”. Some have ways they are planning, others have no clue. Only a couple of people have ever said that they are dealing with the issue of whether or not it is wrong to end one’s life – and they were both former Roman Catholics, who were clearly taught that “suicide” was a sin that would merit Hell.

When people ask me the question, I say – with a smile, and with humour, and with a hint of slyness, and a hint of avoidance, “It’s a huge pitcher of Black Russians and the hot tub for me!” Indeed, my friend Sheldon and I have a giddy pact.

I’m not going to pontificate on this. Simply, it is an issue we are all going to have to deal with, at a stage when “modern medicine” can keep us biologically alive for years in a coma.

How as a boy I loved “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London, first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post” in 1903!! I think I read it several times. I am in agreement with Mr. London. When I will die, or how, is not a primary worry of my life. Agatha Christie, who died on this day in 1976, once said, I live now on borrowed time, waiting in the anteroom for the summons that will inevitably come. And then - I go on to the next thing, whatever it is. One doesn't, luckily, have to bother about that. I’m with her too; all I really know about the Afterlife is that it resides in the presence of a good and loving Creator – so who’s to worry. Things will get gently and justly sorted out then.

As London says, the point – especially in our times with all out technology – is not to exist but to live. And to live honestly. “Retirement”, for me, will be not about “length of days” in unemployed bliss. It will be about recklessly spending my life being myself and doing what I believe to be important. Like Dom Odo Cassel, I hope to drop dead at the altar having just proclaimed the Easter Gospel.

So who wouldn’t want to retire?! You can do just as much “using your time” poor or rich or with whatever resources you have.

Brian+