I am guilty of this. Maybe it was the way I was raised or I was conditioned because of my surroundings. Whenever something is off about my body, my first response to anyone who asks what is wrong or how I feel is, "I am dying," or "I feel like death." I say this as a joke.
The other day, I realized I need to stop. Death is not a joke, and anyone who actually is dying from an actual deadly disease, probably does not find my or your "joke" funny.
"We are all slowly dying anyway. Don't be so sensitive." Yeah, that is true, we all end up in the ground or in a vase, or whatever you choose, one day. But some people do not have the time we do. Their life hour glass had some of their sand taken and they would do anything to gain it back. This is not coming from personal knowledge, but I can not even imagine living everyday knowing that I am that much closer to the end of my days. Granted you should take Tim McGraw's advice and live like you're dying every waking moment, but some people don't even realize how fast their life is going by. People who don't have much time probably count their lucky stairs everyday they aren't constrained to a bed or chair and still have air in their chest without a tube in their mouth or nose.
Some people who are diagnosed with a deadly sickness and given how long they have to live, take that as a wake-up call to go out into the world and live so they do not regret not doing what they wanted to before leaving this world. Take the movie "The Bucket List" for example. If you found out you were dying, wouldn't you want to fulfill everything on your bucket list to say that you really lived? Last week I wrote an article about actually living, and sitting around saying you want to do something, but not doing it, is not living.
Now some other people do not take life altering news with the same mentality. Some would lose all faith, motivation and strife in life to even continue on. Suicide becomes a recurring option and quitting jobs or dropping hobbies that you were successful with and passionate about become a distant memory. "Why even bother trying anymore. I won't be here much longer." That is a common phrase that come from people who aren't even dying. People who have a diagnosis of severe arthritis find it better to just drop out of everything. The problem is, in that time you are sitting around alone and probably depressed and angry, you could be learning ways to manage your pain and live your life. Go back to work, keep wood working, play a sport, join a book club; what ever you need to do. Life is about taking in every second of the time you were given.
Stop treating a simple cold like a death sentence. You're not dying. Take it from people who are actually going through a death, you do not know what it feels like. "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will," -Gandhi.
