How Doctors Die by Ken Murray

            How Doctors Die is written by Dr. Ken Murray M.D, an essayist, speaker, and a retired physician. Dr. Murray has been published in several medical magazines such as the Zocalo Public Square, and has also been interviewed on NPR. In this particular essay, Murray compares how doctors and patients decide to go about treatment for life threatening injuries. Being a retired doctor, Murray has experience in the medical field and therefore knows much about the internal workings of a hospital. Murray begins by providing an anecdote about his mentor, Charlie, an orthopedist who was diagnosed with cancer. Charlie, albeit that he could’ve gotten the best treatment decided to forgo any, “Radiation, or surgical treatment”(231), and instead just died at home. Murray continues to explain that due to the fact that doctors are aware of the probability and the suffering involved with treatment, the majority of them forgo any operations and instead elect to die at home. What appalled Murray was that although doctors elect to refrain from treatment, many of them give their patients, “futile care”(232). Murray continues to hypothesize that the reason for such activity has to do with the patient’s lack of knowledge on treatment, the doctor’s lack of judgment, and even the panic of the emergency room. While these all are contributing factors, the bottom line and purpose of Murray’s essay is that the medical system can, “swallow people up”(234) if patients aren’t educated on what they’re deciding. In order to avoid the panic, the medical bills, and the haphazard nature of the hospital, Murray suggests to, like his cousin, and fellow doctors, “Go gentle into that good night”(235). Murray’s use of anecdotes from his mentor and his cousin who also died naturally, better Murray’s point because the reader sees the examples as relatable. I felt as though Murray affirmed his point by emphasizing the contradiction that doctors themselves don’t go through intense treatment; therefore why should patients. Overall I thought the essay was very well written and even convinced me to consider dying naturally. To me it seems peaceful and less invasive and that was Murray’s point.

Dying Man

Image By: Vipdictionary.com

Would you rather die covered in wires with large medical bills or in peace with your family?

Objects of Affection by Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough

       Objects of Affection is written by Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough, an essayist, literary translator, and teacher at Emerson College. Ewa’s numerous essays have been published in The American Scholar, Ploughshares, and various other journals. This essay specifically, discusses Ewa’s attachment with antique objects. Ewa begins the essay by saying that such items, “Connect us to the past and its messy materiality by making the past more concrete”(167-168). Once this claim is made, Ewa recounts her time as a child in Communist Poland where due to the scarcity of items, everyone had to hold onto what was his or hers. In order to further substantiate her materiality Ewa provides an anecdote of her grandmother, whose possessions were all wiped away in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Ewa’s grandmother was shaped by the fact that all her possessions disappeared because along with them, memories were lost. Ewa uses this anecdote to show that she doesn’t want to lose everything as her grandmother did. Instead, Ewa now keeps things that her husband calls “junk” such as her, “Daughters’ newborn caps, their christening gowns…cards they wrote to me [her] on Mother’s Day”(174). Ewa’s purpose in writing about her attachment to objects is that she wants to inform the general public that keeping sentimental items can be rewarding. Ewa sums up the essay by pulling from story, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, by Tadeusz Borowski. The story talks of a man who takes his personal items to a gas chamber despite knowing that he is going to get them taken from him. Ewa’s point in using this story is to show that, “Objects help us exorcise some of our fears...they give us semblance of permanence and grant a stay against chaos”(175). Pulling from this story helped me understand the power of objects. Overall, I think that this essay is well crafted and accomplishes its purpose of giving reason to keep sentimental items. After reading about Ewa’s grandmother, I realized how little I know about my family history and connected that to the fact that my family’s trinkets are in India. Moreover, the essay was insightful and Ewa accomplished her purpose.

Weird Cup By Carl Norwaydude

Some may see just a weird cup, however others may see a history of family memories encased in a small cup

Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here by Mark Edmundson

        In this essay, Dr. Mark Edmundson discusses the major drawbacks of higher education and proposes a way for students to have fulfilling careers through following their passion. Dr. Edmundson is an established writer, and an English professor at the University of Virginia. He has won several awards for writing and this essay in particular, has been published in the Oxford American literary journal. Being a professor, Edmundson directs his essay towards incoming students as to show how to get the most out of a college education. Edmundson observes, “To everyone, university education is a means to an end. For students that end is a job”(91) and while seeing this, Edmundson says, “They have it wrong”(91). Rather than using college as a stepping-stone towards getting a high-paying job and a life with “A driveway of your own”(95), Edmundson asserts that the real value of college education is, “Finding out what form of work for you is close to being play”(100). Edmundson starts the essay in the second person to get the effect of talking directly to the reader. He uses this strategy to break down the barrier between the author and reader and by doing so the essay is more approachable. Also, instead of saying his claim, Edmundson poses questions to the reader such as, “Why make trouble”(95) and “Doesn’t the content of the courses matter at all”(94) as to make the reader feel more involved. Edmundson later discusses Emerson and Freud, two famous writers that convinced him that challenging everything was more rewarding than conforming to societal needs. By working in these two prominent figures, Edmundson further substantiates his claim. Later, Edmundson talks about his father’s dissatisfying career. This anecdote serves to make the essay’s point that by doing what society wants; you will end up like Edmundson’s father. Overall, I think the essay was very well written to the point where I agreed with what Edmundson was saying. His authoritative tone, stories, insights, and use of prominent figures convinced me that Edmundson is very intellectual and correct in his claims.

Student Affairs Cartoon! By Oullette (2010)

What will happen if we continue to conform with society and fail to question everything

The Good Short Life by Dudley Clendinen

        In this essay, author Dudley Clendinen describes his thoughts of death after he is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Clendinen was a reporter for the New York Times and the editor of The Baltimore Sun. Shortly after being diagnosed, Clendinen offered his perspective on death through writing this essay, as well as hosting a radio series on WYPR. In this essay, Clendinen opens with the statement, “I have wonderful friends”(63) and continues to talk about how his life is fantastic. However midway through the first page he mentions the necessity for obtaining a gun to kill himself. The way Clendinen changes the tone of the essay catches the reader’s attention. Although Clendinen is cognizant that with modern technology he is able to prolong his life, he decides not to undergo the, “Colossal waste of love and money”(65) because he doesn’t want to be, “A drag”(64). Clendinen not only accepts the fact that he is going to die, but rather embraces it and decides that once he is unable to, “Tell a funny story, (or) walk my (his) dog…Life is over”(66). Clendinen’s purpose in writing this essay was to inform the public that it’s more beneficial to die once you can’t do simple tasks as opposed to prolonging your life. This unique perspective is supported by an anecdote where Clendinen sees his mother suffer through treatment. Clendinen recounts, “She looked at me…as she might have at a passing cloud”(65). Essentially, in order to stop himself from becoming so weak that he wouldn’t be able to love his daughter, he wanted to kill himself. I thought that this anecdote was powerful, as it exemplified what Clendinen did not want to become. Later on, Clendinen references a song called, “Dance Me to the End of Love”(66) to even further show how he truly feels about dying. I thought that this essay was well written and offered a fresh perspective on death. I think Clendinen achieved his purpose as I now question how I would want to die. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this essay as it was very insightful and thought provoking.

Pulling the Plug By Bennett (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

This pain and suffering is not helping anyone...