OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from Tyler Dunlop, who, in a recent OrilliaMattters story, said he would be seeking a medically-assisted death due to the hopelessness he feels after dealing with mental health issues and homelessness for many years.
It seems strange to me that the issue surrounding my choice is even an issue this late in our species' history. It simply shows me that we need to grow and psychologically evolve...
Why do we fear something as natural as death? Is it not as natural as breathing, aging or any physiological function? Does someone not have the simple choice to stay or go? Why complicate, restrict or demonize someone's right to simply make a choice?
I look at the world around me and am sad as I see insane dysfunction destroying our beautiful planet, other species and ourselves. We are truly at our eleventh hour and must make an important choice: align with nature or perish.
When I was a boy I simply saw the dance of the seasons and knew death was simply part of life. I intuitively knew, somehow, that existence innately knows what to do whether I did or not.
Yet I think my decision forces people out of quite limited cultural narratives and causes people to face something many try hard not to: fear. Like children afraid of the dark, we collectively still dread imagined psychological monsters in the closet so to speak and we have failed to grow, perhaps to the point of an extinction that is quite close.
The great psychoanalyst Carl Jung wisely said: "What we resist persists" and what could be more true? Like addiction, fear of death arises from an unconscious refusal to face our own pain. Like quicksand, the more we war against what we are and what is happening, the more we seem to sink.
I have gone through the standard grief stages and today am quite at peace with the way things are, yet when people look at me they really see themselves at that pivotal moment when they will have to let go of their lives. Whether it be in old age breathing their last or when they are young, perhaps with a terminal illness.
When I lived in another province years ago, I studied for a year with a lovely Buddhist Nun who taught me my greatest lessons I have recently remembered. Acceptance was the biggest lesson and I remember being struck and surprised by how seemingly lighthearted she was. She smiled, laughed and shrugged a lot in contrast to my grim seriousness.
Like many in our modern culture, I tried hard to stand out and be "special" and what a shocking relief it was to discover I am anything but, simply a speck in a vastness I will never comprehend. Ha! What a weight removed!
In our world, housing, mental health, addiction, disparity and all our insanely complex sociocultural issues show me that we are simply divided and if such a culture continues, we will simply not survive. Waiting for external conditions outside of ourselves to repair us will be fatal in just a few short years. We must simply evolve or die, period. Anyone can see that this is true...
When humans see that death is preferable to life for whatever reasons, we are deeply dysfunctional as a species. Stoic philosophy is greatly needed right now. Intellect over emotion, not the other way around. Our lack of individual control and initiative is reflected in the broken world we inhabit. Our lovely planet, if not our destructive ways, will soon initiate automatic defence mechanisms rid itself of us and this is quite natural...
In Greek and Japanese cultures, the act of terminating one's life was regarded as both sensible and noble and is it not? I am given free-will and to restrict that is a violation of my right to exist. If my life is restricted in such a way, is that not unfair and, to be candid, not a life at all? This is not about what is "right" or "wrong" because they are, in fact, philosophical polarities in a very much imaginary human value system. This is about responsibility...
I hope this legislation is approved. It will show a quantum leap in our maturation as a species. Forcing me to abide by your cultural narratives and beliefs is oppression. Is that not a fair statement?
All other species with the exception of humans and primates cooperate. They are neutral and aligned with nature and yet we consider them of inferior intelligence. How insane is such a notion? Our powers of reason have nearly destroyed us. Simply, we think too much, are quite insane and are suicidal by default anyways...
If we prevail and embrace the stars and beyond, perhaps that advanced golden rule will simply be: If one hurts, we all do. Good luck to you all and take care.
Tyler Dunlop
Orillia
