Chapter Twelve

 

This was an interesting chapter because it was the second time this semester in which I had to extensively contemplate the subject of death or rather the grieving process seeing as how I have, fortunately, not been subject to a close death yet. As I said in my Groups class earlier in the semester when this topic was discussed I essentially don’t really have much to say. However, much of these aspects were discussed back then and as a result I have a little bit to say on a grieving matter, in that now I understand it can be separated from death, but still not much.

The book talks about thinking about your impending death a lot but honestly it’s not something that I cognitively think about often. I would say I probably do think about it at an unconscious level all the time though as I’m in no hurry to evoke “YOLO” or “Carpe Diem” by doing crazy things although I have recently contemplated skydiving. However, the issue there is that idea never got so far as past the contemplation stages, let alone off the ground. Perhaps this is a major reason why I never consciously think about death as impending because I never really take too many risks that I would deem unnecessary. The book even touches on this in the final pages of Chapter 12 mentioning becoming spontaneous as well as questioning how well you are living.

As for looking at the grieving process as opposed to just the concept of death while I can better relate to that, as I alluded to earlier, I still have issues with thinking of things. Heck, I don’t know why I feel a calling to the Counseling field because I have had a cake walk of a life without many setbacks or the need for grieving. Even some of the periods in my life that were supposed to involve grieving such as moving out of my mother’s house or me and my wife moving out on our own were pretty easy transitions that didn’t involve the need to grieve because the pros in those situations far outweighed the cons and my viewpoint was very future oriented in both situations.

I don’t know it was just a very hard topic to talk about earlier in the semester and it still kind of is although now I’m more aware of the fact that the grieving process doesn’t just have to relate to death that is about it.

Corey, G. & Corey, M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a choice: Exploration in personal growth (9th

                   Edition). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole