To be or not to be...

I am not contemplating my own death, but the concept of death, actually. Sounding morbid? Well, for a project focused on death and dying in my Home Health class (a very Hospice-y focused class), I watched six videos related to process of death and dying. It was very enlightening, but left me with questions regarding death. I wonder what kind of death I will want. In Mexico, death is celebrated with the Day of the Dead. Families gather around their loved ones' graves for an entire day, with happy singing, candles, flowers, art... it's quite exciting. Not the death part, but the celebration of death, as it is a part of life. Besides that, I also am contemplating the thought of mercy killing--or euthanasia as you may know it. These documentaries depicted this kind of death as almost sane. I wondered if I would kill my spouse if they were in such pain and agony, they could do nothing. I don't think so, but it's hard to tell. What is this world coming to? In one of the videos, it showed a house just for AIDS patients, where people with AIDS lived together supporting one another until they died. It made me think of how much I can do as a nurse, hoping to reach out to people in such need and distress, giving to all kinds of their needs: spiritual, physical, emotional, social... I think I might want to work either in the business of bringing life into the world, or sending people out of it. They are both special times in peoples' lives, and I would love to share in it, as wierd as that might sound. Just the thoughts of this nursing student.