Population: 485; Culture Essay

Michael Perry introduces some(prenominal) themes through turn taboo Population 485. Love, pain and acceptance argon e actually last(predicate) touched upon in his memoir, only unmatchable that devourms to stick out and is brought up again and again is final stage. As a volunteer firefighter, roughly of the connections he braces with the people of his community argon caused by responding to emergency accident and fire c altogethers- some of which result in d eraseh. In our culture, and all(prenominal) culture, expiration is an required fact of life. We all, at some point in our lives, are waiver to encounter the death of soul reason to us.Whether it allow be a family extremity, friend or ourselves, unexampled or old, it is exhalation to happen and we will fetch to face it. final stage affects every star differently and the path we debate with divergence varies with every someone and with every culture. When the majority of us call back of death, we see someo ne old and sick, finespun and weak. While mourning the loss of a loved one is neer easy, irrespective of age or cause of death, losing a young friend or family member is an even much challenging ingenuousness to face. It is often the unexpected losses that weart necessitate reek. We ask ourselves wherefore? Why did this happen? and try to subscribe meaning to the tragedy. sure we adviset die secure because we hit a patch of pebbles on a curve. Surely there is preordination in the pea gravel. We are creatures of myth, hungry for metaphor and allegory, only when most of all, hungry for sense. (p. 132). This is one of the offices our culture copes with death. We refuse to believe that a young person could die so speedily and meaninglessly and we are swift to date a reason back it all. In reality though, there is no answer. cardinal years ago a close friend of mine died due to injuries caused by a gocycle accident. He was 20 years old.It was a painful regard tha t left me questioning my faith and asking why such a heavy person was developn away at such a young age. I did try to describe reasoning behind it, but never really came up with an answer. I cried for weeks, for hours at a meter. I couldnt stop cyphering to the high-pitchedest degree how real this was, how I was never going to see his face or key his voice again. So m some(prenominal) things in life he didnt depart a chance to experience. I longed to go back in clipping to discovery a way to prevent his last(a) endpoint, but I soon completed there was nothing I could do. His death brought many people close to hitchher.We had broad gatherings, for a couple months subsequently he passed, with all of his friends and family. We told stories and talked about our greatest memories we had with our friend, laughed and cried together. We support each other, shared our feelings and listened to one another. It was our way to cope with our loss. We soon realized that the earth ly concern doesnt stop for people to grieve, so after a while, the parties died d throw and we all got back to our normal routines. Life forces you to get it together and to move on and time heals all wounds. I promptly tell apart my friend as a storage and distinguish that I will see him again someday.We often see this in our culture. People comply together to aid each other through wicked times. Emotional support and counseling are other ways people in our culture cope with death. This memory has been triggered by the story Michael Perry tells of Tracy Rimes. Tracy was killed in a motor vehicle accident while victorious a corner to a fault debauched or overly wide. She was just a teenager, not even graduated from high school. Parts of her story are brought up again and again by the condition throughout the book. I conceive this ensuant got to him and he had a badly time coping with this one. Maybe it was because she was so young with a lot of life ahead(predicate) of her.Maybe it marks a milestone or turning point for him. instantly we had tragedy, but it was our tragedy, and we dealt with it not only as public citizens, but too as friends and neighbors To feel at infrastructure is a rare, precious thing, and I began to feel at home that day. (p. 16). It was the day he make his connection and found his place. Maybe he relates sides of the incident to his own life. In chapter one there is a paragraph where he is talking about the accident and he describes how the girl was pinned in silence after the violent squalling, glass exploding, rubber tearing, vane tumbling and then just stillness. As if peace is the only answer to dying The girl is terribly, terribly alone in a beautiful, beautiful innovation. (p. 4). He describes the impose and nature so more than in the book with such life and love, and also comes off as kind of an foreigner always looking in, trying to find a place to belong. Does he too feel terribly, terribly alone in a beautiful, beautiful world? I work out this is another way to cope with death. Find a positive outcome from a tragedy. Death puke make a person stronger. It can make someone open there eye to life and not take it for granted.It can make someone open their doors a little wider to friends and family and let people in. Michael shares a lot of stories throughout his book that touch on the unexpected deaths he has encountered. In fact, he has seen a dead person so many times he says, I can look at you and hunch over exactly what you would look like dead. (p. 128). I can relate to this in a way. While I take away never imagined what the person sitting next to me will look like when theyre dead, I have also seen many a corpse. It comes as part of the package when you choose a career in healthcare.I have worked as a respiratory therapist for four years now in a hospital. We respond to all the codes and traumas that come in and are basically responsible for a persons airway. We a lso manage the breathing apparatuss and occasionally have to pull the tube when it has been determined that the ventilator is just prolonging the dying process, if that is what the family wishes. At first, it was hard for me to deal with the situations. I would go home still thinking about that pale, exanimate form. I couldnt get the voices out of my head of the family screaming the patients name and inst and praying.It all got to me. I cried the first fewer times, but then I quickly go overed that you have to somehow separate yourself from the emotional aspect of the situation, sort of take your mind somewhere else for a infinitesimal than get back to reality, like the reference seems to do in his writing. Now, after see so many, a dead body doesnt even phase me. Its no big deal any longer to respond to a code, perform CPR, suck nasty stuff from an endotracheal tube thats deep in the throat of a patient covered in contrast and bowel and then go eat lunch. Sounds gross, but its our job. You just learn to block certain things out.I think Michael uses his ability and love for writing as a way to cope with death. He seems like sort of a loner, possibly he doesnt feel snug talking with someone about what hes thinking or feeling, so he writes stories and anecdotes about them. The way he starts a story of one his calls, than jumps to a completely different field of operation, and then later depicts to finish the story maybe is a reflection of another way he handles death. Its like he takes a break for a minute and shifts his thoughts somewhere else, so that he can return to the facts of the story, and not be interrupted by emotions.I think writing or keeping a journal with our own stories, thoughts and emotions is another way our culture copes with death too. I think death is an aspect of our culture that we dont much like to talk about, or think about. We know that we are all going to someday die, and that everyone we know will too someday pass, bu t it is much more comfortable to take for granted tomorrow. Death is something that could potentially happen to anyone, at any given moment and I think it is our avoidance of death that creates such distress when the death of a loved one comes unexpectedly.For me, its the unknown part of the futurity that scares me. That and the thought of not being with my children. In the book, Michael Perry shares his own feelings of dying. He brings the reader to the woods, where he feels that sleeping in the presence of the trees and in the dirt joins him with the earth and gives him a sense of what it is to be holy. I have come to think of my sleeps in the forest as a rehearsal for burial (p. 140). He gives the impression that he is prepared for death and that we should ponder upon the fact that it is coming.Not how or where or why, just the simple true statement that we will be gone someday and it may seem less discomforting if we just accept the fact and give it a nod now and then. (p. 1 40). Death can get to be a very sensitive subject in our world today. It means so many diverse things to different people and cultures and is handled in your own way by each singular. For the most part, I think coping with the loss of a loved one comes brush up to a persons individual beliefs, traditions, and culture. It is a personal choice whether or not to prepare for and accept death.Michael Perry brings the subject to your attention several times throughout the book, almost forcing you to think about death. Be grateful for death, the one great demonstration in an uncertain world. Be glad for the spirit smoke that lingers for every wick gone out. (p. 142). We dont know when or why or how, but death is coming. To you, to me, to everyone someday. Its a alarming thought, but I hope I can build an acceptance to the inevitable fact of life and be at peace with death when it knocks on my door, in advance its too late.