A Good Life

 By David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star

In an article which I recently read was the sentence: “A dignified death completes a good life”. I thought how well that expressed a thinking person’s attitude to Life! It is one I share and accordingly, I am getting my act together, through a glass darkly it must be admitted, to put in place the necessary formalities here, for euthanasia, should I need it. I am fumbling somewhat only because of the language difficulty which is serious though not terminally so! It will be accomplished and though one hopes that the instructions for Nil by Mouth, and for Euthanasia won’t be necessary, the fact that all is legally in place in the event of necessity, then that is very reassuring to a person in her eighties. It is most interesting that, with age, comes the complete comfort to talk about, consider, envisage, one’s own death, not a comfortable topic for younger people normally. When life is no longer a joy; conversation no longer a possibility; walks in the sun or the rain no longer viable; reading, an irrelevance, then a dignified end, decided autonomously by the sufferer in earlier, happier, healthier times, rounds off a life lived as fully as possible, in a satisfying way.

 By Wasserman in The Wall Street Journal

It is salutary to note that Desmond Tutu has managed to reconcile his belief in the sanctity of life with his call for assisted dying; in his case, with his expressed desire for his own assisted death should it be necessary. Lord Carey too, a previous Archbishop of Canterbury, has publicly supported euthanasia. Both eminent church men demonstrate compassion and understanding for those in pain, or worse, at the end of their lives and both live in countries where their publicly-stated positions are outside the law. When I moved to Brugge I had no idea that euthanasia had been legalised in Belgium since 2002 and it is an aspect of living here which seems to enjoy huge support in spite of this being a Roman Catholic country. It is surely the mark of a civilised nation to have high ideals and the necessary sophisticated State machinery to enable those ideals to be translated smoothly into practice. However, Belgium is in small minority of countries permitting euthanasia. One thinks of Hamlet and his ‘Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew/ Or that th’ Everlasting had not fixed/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter. Oh God, oh God.’ Five hundred years after Shakespeare wrote those words, the same immutable laws, though now man-made, obtain almost everywhere.

By an amazing coincidence, my sixteen year old grand-daughter is doing a school assignment on Euthanasia at present. Brownie points for the school I reckon; early consideration of difficult topics
is an important aspect of education and offers hope and enlightenment for society; so shines a good deed in a naughty world!

Not exactly on the same topic but close; I noticed a sweet notice in the window of the Gulliver Tree, a tea room not far from the Markt a couple of weeks ago. The English owner who had founded the place about twenty years ago and nurtured it into a real popularity, had passed away and her grand-children had left a quote from Winnie the Pooh, her absolutely favourite story, with an illustration, in the café window with Oma written below.

The good life now, was further embellished last evening when a large group of friends in various amazing fashions [the women, that is; the men wore DJs] assembled by invitation to play Roulette and Blackjack, all for no real money, which was comforting. Inexperience notwithstanding, it was all great fun and I now know that for me, Roulette is boring [never did get the scoring system!] but Blackjack is such fun. However, an evening at the casino in Knokke is not a priority!

Sunday afternoon, a brief exposure to youthful idealism when I joined the first beat of the Pulse of Europe, in the Burg. Organised by students from the College of Europe situated in Brugge, it is described as a citizens’ initiative to demonstrate for a united Europe, and it was replicated simultaneously in 120 other cities, giving many Europeans the opportunity to express their opinions and publicly share their values. There was an open mike for members of the public to express their support for the European values of peace, individual freedom, justice and human rights. Our Brugge effort was quite sparsely attended, perhaps by thirty people, but it was a heart-warming first public demonstration of the importance of visible support for the concept of a united Europe. The next meeting, on the first Sunday in December I shall have to miss so must wait for February for the next available. I do look forward to it and will make use of the open mike as I missed my chance today.


Great to see so many young people in the
modest group of Euro-devotees.This
was about half of the supporting cast!