My family has two sides that have conflicting ideas about illness and dying. My mother did the majority of raising me so her incite on health care was the most influential to me. She never talked to me about illness and dying because, although it is a very important topic, it is considered morbid. But she made it clear that being sick or injured was not something I wanted to experience. I believe that her lack of enlightenment was due to me never having been severely injured or ill. Why discuss something you don't necessarily want to think about when it isn't happening? In terms of common illnesses my mother has a very mainstream approach. In our society, the norm is to take pills or shots to cure whatever harms us. The only thing my mother has always been strongly against, although they are very popular in this country, are prevention drugs. She always thought they were gratuitous because the shots and pills they give you to prevent this worse disease has side effects of their own. It's not worth it to harm your body in hopes to prevent a sickness that you were not guaranteed on getting in the first place. For example, I have never gotten a Flu shot and I have also never gotten the flu.
My father had very different views on the topic. He is very into holistic methods to stay healthy and it has worked for him because he rarely gets sick. I remember him telling my once when I was younger that he hadn't even had a common cold in 5 years to prove that he is very good at maintaining his health. He told me that if I came to him about being sick he would first ask of my symptoms, then he would call his close friend, my "uncle" Ike who is a doctor, to tell him how serious the problem is. If he felt he could treat it himself then he would, but if he had no clue, then he would have to take me to the hospital. His approach to sickness was definitely derived from his family's. His mother never gave him pills or allowed him to have any vaccinations and she usually had an herbal method to heal him. He stated that he had never been to the hospital (like me) and that he was raised on health food so he was always in a pretty healthy state.
When I brought up death and dying my dad somewhat froze up. He was very uncomfortable discussing this topic because it was one he usually avoided. No one really close to him has died before (this is also true for me). He even admitted to being afraid of funerals. It was a topic he didn't really have to deal with so he never thought about it deeply but he pointed out that in the Rastafarian community, death was never focused on.
Both my parents had different perspectives but they did share some common ground as well. They both believed that in severe cases, hospitals were necessary. They also thought of death as a negative topic that shouldn't be discussed. A common theme I've noticed during this unit is that everyone believes that the ill and the dying should be taken care of by another person because they are in a weaker state. My discussion with both of my parents continued to prove this generalization true.It makes complete sense to reach out for other peoples help while they are weak, but what happens if you are in a situation where everyone is sick and no one can help the other? Or if you are sick and alone? Shouldn't we have an idea of how to treat ourselves? Is this only true of our society? I should have asked these questions of my parents but I never did, sadly. It seems as if this system of helping the weak works well in our society though.
No comments:
Post a Comment