How Can I Miss You If You Don't Go Away?

OK, an entirely too facetious subject line for a more serious post.

My client and I were watching the news, and they had that story on about that chick in Florida from whom they're trying to remove the feeding tube and let her die, but since it's not written down that those were her wishes, there's all this controversy. At the end, the husband pleaded with the viewing audience to make sure that one's wishes were written down and witnessed, to prevent this from happening to someone else.

My client let me know that it wasn't as easy as all that. He said that he had had written documentation, and when his family asked him, some time after his accident, if he wanted them to pull the plug, he said yes. They went to carry out his wishes, but someone else (a friend of his, I think? perhaps someone with more authority, like his executor... I'm not sure...) disagreed, and basically said he wasn't in a position or frame of mind to make that decision. That was years ago, of course.

I can't imagine what that must have been like for him, his family, or anyone who knew him.

It made me very sad. But not for that reason, although I had a sort of detached compassion for it.

I don't really see him as a client. Technically, of course, he is, but I consider him and his family as friends. I care a great deal for all of them, and I'm glad I'm able to spend time with him. I don't see it as work. I look forward to going, every night. (Sometimes I don't look forward to losing sleep, but that's another matter entirely.) If I'd never known him, of course, I wouldn't have missed him... but 20/20 hindsight tells me I'd be the poorer for it.

I just wanted to express that. I don't have any grand comments on the above controversy that started the conversation. Life is as sacred as death is as sacred as life is as...

I miss dai_syn.

Oh Boy! Drugs for Me!!! :)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Some journalists have been expressing pious
outrage about baseball players who may have enhanced their physical
abilities with steroids. Next maybe they will turn their attention to
computer pioneers whose revolutionary innovations in the '70s and '80s
were spurred by their ingestion of psychedelic drugs; and musicians,
writers, filmmakers, and actors whose creativity is primed by dope and
booze; and politicians like the first President George Bush, who regularly
took Halcion, a sleeping pill with side effects like amnesia, anxiety attacks,
and paranoia; and the millions of average people who make life-changing
decisions while in the grip of psychotropics like Prozac or that powerful
drug, caffeine. What's your performance-enhancing, mind-altering
substance of choice, Libra? Whatever it is, this is the week you should
fully acknowledge its impact on your destiny. Celebrate its gifts and
analyze its downsides.