Problems with this section; for Frank (Agnosticism)

by Frank Paris , Monday, November 23, 2009, 21:45 (5478 days ago) @ David Turell

"I think you have misundersteod Frank."-I think I basically ignored this post you quoted from, because of this part of it: "I find it shocking, and wonder if it isn't one of those dramatic statements of yours that you might like to qualify. If not, I can only assume you have never lost someone you love, or witnessed the grief of those who have."-First of all, let me report that I've witnessed the death of my daughter's best friend and grieved with her about that, and later the death of my beloved mother at the age of 69, and my beloved father a year later at the age of 71. And then about 8 years later, I witnessed the death of my favorite brother at the "young" age of 51. However, in all of these cases, I believe I received closure more rapidly than my siblings because of my "mystical vision" of the meaning of life and death. I'm not bragging and don't want to minimize the acute grief I experienced for months after each death. But I didn't remain haunted by these deaths for years afterwards like some (not all) of my siblings.-So dhw is basically the teapot calling the kettle black, in making a statement like, "I...wonder if it isn't one of those dramatic statements of yours." Isn't that exactly what he was doing in writing that? Especially when he follows it up with the entirely unwarranted conclusion, "I can only assume you have never lost someone you love, or witnessed the grief of those who have." Talk about an uncharitable statement to make, evidently because he was driven to hyperbole by something else I said. Time to calm down.-To address what you said: '"The comfort lies in doing the right thing" is the dying person's comfort. I feel the same way. When I am dying I want to be able to look back, and be pleased with my life, leaving the world a little better place.'-I didn't mean experiencing the "dying person's comfort." I mean the comfort we experience from incident to incident: knowing we have done our best with as open a mind as possible, which means with as large a perspective as is possible for us, and not blinded by our own prejudices that might rear their ugly heads when we act out of anger or frustration.