So it all started because I have this mole that is changing and I have to get it checked out. And with most things that I am kind of freaked out about I fantasize about how it's going to go. (I wonder if everyone does this.... picturing the doctor's prognosis, telling your friends and family, what are you going to do with your last..., but maybe I am too morbid.) And I think about how when some people are told they have x amount of time to live die exactly to the day and how others achieve a full recovery. I wonder what makes the difference and whether someone's will to live is more important than anything. I remember my father's resignation toward death near the end of his life... was he accepting the inevitable or did he help speed it along? Sitting with him in the hospital, I sometimes thought it was the latter.
And then I wonder about my will to live. Don't get me wrong, I don't have any wish to end my life, but I wonder if someone told me that I had a year to live would I really say "no fucking way"? I'm not so sure. But why the fuck not? I must admit that part of me would take pleasure in knowing that I could just do whatever I wanted without fearing the consequences.... I mean whatever anyone could do to me it would only last a year.... oh the shit I would do! And how sad it is that fear keeps me from doing what I want.
But also, and this kind of disturbs me more in a way, is that I began to think that my life perhaps wasn't worth much because human life isn't worth much. I mean in a way, humans suck, right? I can sum it up in one word: civilization and you know exactly what I am talking about. Or I can use a multitude of words: prisons, cars, pavement, nuclear bombs, pollution, deforestation, vivisection, television, jobs, factory farming, bureaucracy, money, slavery, plastic, commercials, etc. and you know exactly what I am talking about. All of my friends (that's probably why we are friends) know this... know that humans have ruined everything. And even the ones that don't want to ruin anything at all, end up doing so anyway. If we care about this planet, our home, we should all just not be here, right? So it is really difficult not to see my absence from this planet as well, somewhat beneficial... so a prognosis may not be great news, but hey, could it really be seen as so so bad that it would cause me or anyone to fight with every ounce of my being any disease I might have? And I like my life; I would say I am at about 80% of yeah, I want to keep on living, I am having fun, I do cool shit, etc. But, I'm thinking why am I not at a 100%, why would I not say "absolutely, no fucking way"? And is this a problem?
It is often said that one of the differences between human and non-human animals is that humans know that they are going to die one day. I don't really think that I believe this, but I am beginning to wonder if knowing that you are going to die one day keeps you from being fully 100% in favor of living. Are we trapped by the idea that "well, it's going to happen one day"? We are told that all animals, by nature, are designed to value and work for their own survival (or survival of their offspring) above everything else. Is me being not at 100%, yet another way I have become domesticated? Maybe there is resignation amongst other species in the face of death. I think I've seen it on those nature programs. But I can't help that something about not being at 100%, just feels, well, fucking weird and unnatural.
But it gets even weirder.... Derrick Jensen argues that most of us in our culture are in love with death, our own death, death of the natural world, death of the planet. That at the base of it, we really don't give a shit about our lives because otherwise we wouldn't destroying everything we need for survival. Why in the world would we value shopping malls over trees, if we didn't have a death wish? So why, then, would my failure to fight for my survival come from my hatred of civilization... from knowing that the world might be better without me (or any of us)?
For me, it comes down to this: either I have to accept that I am not 100% enthusiastic about my own survival or the survival of my species. I have to be able to explain to my mother, my brothers, my friends and the people that love me why I might only have a response of "oh shit, well, that kind of sucks... I'll do the best I can but oh well" in the face of death (and this would include not just trips to the doctor's office, but I also think about how I would respond if I was attacked in a lethal manner) even though they might want me to fight harder. And accept that the uneasiness that comes with that... and that possibly that outlook pushes me in further into domestication. Or I have to really value my own survival... and in some way the survival of my species. I have to see humans (in general, not just certain ones that I have personally grown fond of) as worth saving, even as they destroy everything around them. And in order to do that, I have to forgive and love them again. To see some sort of value, any value, in humans existing. And to not surround myself exclusively and limit my time with those who profess to hate humans (i.e. pretty much everyone I know).
My next doctor's appointment is Monday.