(no subject)
Would you rather die young and heroically or live a long life in obscurity? Why?
Neither.
Dying heroically isn't what most people think. Dying a hero means dying to save someone else, but everyone's definition of what makes a hero is different. I've had more patients than I care to remember that were just going to lay down and die to "save someone else" or to "protect them". That's bullshit. There's nothing heroic about dying. There's nothing glamourous about it either. Your body just deteriorates, most of the time painfully, and then you're dead. And then the person that they're protecting has to deal with their death, which is another process entirely.
The only time that I can remotely consider it excusable is a pregnant mother protecting their child. That's simple biology. It's instinct buried in genetics to protect the next generation. It's still idiotic, but less so than someone dying because they don't want to tell their wife that they were having an affair.
But living a long life isn't that great either. Living is great for the first twenty-five or thirty years, then it starts going downhill. So most people combat that by getting a career that they think is satisfying. For most people, that means a mundane nine to five job that they tell their friends is satisfying, but they have to drag themselves into work every day. It sucks, but they get to live safely and being only known by their friends.
So I don't want either one. I'll die when it's my time, and I'll take the risks that I want to along the way. I'm not young anymore, so I already missed the first window, but I'm hardly living in obscurity either. It's working out pretty well so far.
Muse: House
Fandom: House M.D.
Words: 281
Neither.
Dying heroically isn't what most people think. Dying a hero means dying to save someone else, but everyone's definition of what makes a hero is different. I've had more patients than I care to remember that were just going to lay down and die to "save someone else" or to "protect them". That's bullshit. There's nothing heroic about dying. There's nothing glamourous about it either. Your body just deteriorates, most of the time painfully, and then you're dead. And then the person that they're protecting has to deal with their death, which is another process entirely.
The only time that I can remotely consider it excusable is a pregnant mother protecting their child. That's simple biology. It's instinct buried in genetics to protect the next generation. It's still idiotic, but less so than someone dying because they don't want to tell their wife that they were having an affair.
But living a long life isn't that great either. Living is great for the first twenty-five or thirty years, then it starts going downhill. So most people combat that by getting a career that they think is satisfying. For most people, that means a mundane nine to five job that they tell their friends is satisfying, but they have to drag themselves into work every day. It sucks, but they get to live safely and being only known by their friends.
So I don't want either one. I'll die when it's my time, and I'll take the risks that I want to along the way. I'm not young anymore, so I already missed the first window, but I'm hardly living in obscurity either. It's working out pretty well so far.
Muse: House
Fandom: House M.D.
Words: 281