Thomas Curwen, editor la Los Angeles Times, a vrut să scrie despre sinucidere. A făcut voluntariat la un helpline pentru sinucigaşi, sperând să găsească o poveste prin care să arate drama acestei probleme de sănătate mintală. După o vreme, şi-a dat seama că povestea era chiar în faţa lui: omul care înfiinţase serviciile de urgenţă pentru sinucigaşi în California era pe moarte.
Textul ne duce în lumea doctorului Shneidman, bolnav, bătrân şi singur, şi ne arată cum se vede moartea din mintea cuiva care a studiat-o toată viaţa. Fără superstiţii, fără patetisme, o analiză rece a celui mai mare mister.
Waiting for Death, Alone and Unafraid
28 Feb 2009
By
Thomas CurwenEdwin Shneidman knows what the end will be: You’re driving down a road in the desert, and the engine suddenly stops.
The silence of night never lasts long. It ends somewhere in the 5 o’clock hour with the purring of the heater and distant strains of Sam Cooke.
Edwin Shneidman looks at the clock — an hour and a half since turning off the TV and closing his eyes.
“Mrs. Wiggles,” he shouts. He knows that that’s not her name, but he likes the joke.
Sitting in another room, Pauline Dupuy turns down the CD player and puts her Bible and crossword aside. She stands and walks down the hall into his room.
“My knee hurts.”
“Would you like a pain pill?”
“Tramadol or Vicodin?”
“I don’t care.”
He lies on the side of the bed, sleepy, unshaven, his hair mussed. He never asked to live to be 90, to see the breadth of his life diminished, the allure of the world fallen further out of reach. He is ready to die.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dying28-2009feb28,0,5672765.story
