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This animating energy is the difference between life and death.
When animated, the body is more than just a body, it is the vessel for a person. The person has a particular personality, a history, a smile, and a laugh. However, when the body is inanimate, it is shown to be a mere object, an object that Churchon must preserve, package, and store away according to hospital protocol: "Whenever a baby died, I wrapped it in a blanket, and then, around the blanket, I wound a sky blue disposable pad. I took the football-sized package -- baby, blanket, and pad -- down to the morgue and opened the door of the refrigerator there and placed the package on the glass shelf as gently as I could." (Churchon, 2009, p. 44).
Churchon's focus on the biological aspects of a life causes her distress when she witnesses the expiration of those very biological faculties. While preparing a dead body for storage, she recalls thinking that "The person to whom this pulseless neck and silent heart and these dilated pupils belonged is gone. Yet ten minutes ago, one minute ago, Mrs. Jones was still here, still breathing…" (Churchon, 2009, p. 45).
The body is essentially the physical symbol for a person while they are alive, but how about when they are dead? Viewing dead bodies was unsettling for Churchon because the bodies no longer represented what they used to. "As I flash my light into each pair of eyes and feel each pulseless neck, I think, Who were you?"(Churchon, 2009, p....
45). Churchon was perplexed by the bodies because they were now symbols bereft of meaning.
Analysis
Death should not be looked at as a tragedy or a surprise, but as a marker, as the signal of our transition to the next stage of existence. Just as falling leaves signal the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, a man's last gasp signals his passing into the next phase of existence. In this sense, death is as beautiful as the first dance of autumn leaves.
Although death marks the end of life, it does not necessarily mark the end of existence. The end of life is merely the end of existence in a particular form. Churchon pays excessive attention to this form, the human body, and the consciousness that animates it. For her, the person is extinguished when the last gasp of air leaves the body.
Conclusion
The essays by Bentley and Churchon are wonderful as exercises in aesthetic contemplation. They contemplate certain elements of death that are rarely explored with such earnestness and skill. However, the two essays, represent ultimately limited views of death and of life. They focus solely on the social and biological aspects of life, neglecting the awesome, ineffable aspect of life that presents itself most clearly at the moment of death.
Bibliography
Bentley, T. (2009) "The Bad Lion." New York Review of Books (Nov. 5, 2009)
Churchon, J. (2009) "The Dead Book." The Sun (Feb, 2009) 43-45
Bibliography
Bentley, T. (2009) "The Bad Lion." New York Review of Books (Nov. 5, 2009)
Churchon, J. (2009) "The Dead Book." The Sun (Feb, 2009) 43-45
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