Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread, but if there were no fools, who'd lead the angels?

    I suppose there simply is no way for me to stay out of trouble- perhaps it's my soul's secret desire?

    This showed up in my Facebook notifications yesterday, and I was seized to leap headlong into yet another pesky campaign issue.

Against this Death

By: Irving Layton

POETIC OUTLAWS

AUG 5, 2023

I have seen respectable

death

served up like bread and wine

in stores and offices,

in club and hostel,

and from the streetcorner

church

that faces

two ways

I have seen 

death

served up

like ice.

Against this death,

slow, certain:

the body,

this burly sun,

the exhalations

of your breath,

your cheeks

rose and lovely,

and the secret life

of the imagination

scheming freedom

from labour

and stone.

Irving Layton (1912-2006) was a renowned Canadian poet and teacher known for his bold and provocative writing style. Layton’s famous pupil, Leonard Cohen, once said this about the great poet: “I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever.”

Layton's literary legacy continues to resonate in Canadian poetry. His writing, characterized by its raw emotion, social critique, and sensual language, has inspired subsequent generations of poets. Irving Layton passed away on January 4, 2006, leaving behind a rich body of work that continues to be celebrated and debated in the realm of Canadian literature.

Sloan Bashinsky

Very nice. 

I wonder what Layton, and even Cohen, may have thought or even said about a species that puts its beloved suffering, incurable pets (dogs, cats, etc.) to sleep, but requires their beloved suffering, incurable owners to live and suffer as long as possible, no matter what the cost? 

 

Michael

agree with the sentiment, Sloan, not sure if you are aware, so just fyi Canada has MAID, Medical Assistance In Dying through Federal legislation.

Sloan Bashinsky

Thanks. A few months ago, I heard about Canada's law. I'm an old fart, 81. living in Alabama, a l-o-n-g way from Canada. I don't like traveling long distances, in the first place, and in the second place, what I hear today about flying on commercial airlines and not knowing if your flight will be delayed, or scrubbed, does not cause me to want to fly to Canada some day, when I am by then too old and feeble and otherwise decrepidized and useless, to kindly be put to sleep by a benevolent Canadian doctor- assuming the Canadian law allows such kindness to foreign visitors :-).There are heaps of gun and knife stores in Alabama, and water hoses are easy to buy and attach to the end of a muffler and put the other end through a car window. Although I don't have any hemlock, which a naturopath told me years ago is a very rough way to die, I'm pretty sure what they made Socrates drink for corrupting the youth can be obtained online. I'm also pretty sure gobbling down a bottle of 200 mg Tylenol tablets will kill anyone, but first the liver dies horribly. So, I don't need to go to Canada to get around the American religious freaks and the American medical-industrial complex. I am trying to piss them off so much that they send a sniper my way :-). Meanwhile, the right to die peacefully, like a beloved pet, is part of my 2024 presidential race platform :-) 

Mr. Raven

Stop promoting suicide death dealer! Young broke people are using maid of death now in Can a duh. 

Sloan Bashinsky

I'm promoting MAID for horribly suffering old people. First I've heard of maid of death in can. Please tell me how it can be obtained, so I can spread the word to old farts. Thanks.

man of aran

He’s referring to the expansion of the law that would include those of any age with mental health issues. It’s already been watered down a lot. It’s not an exaggeration to call it a nationwide cull of the ‘burdensome’ and suicidal. Canada is going down a very dark path.   

Sloan Bashinsky

Thanks for the clarification, it sure looked to me that he was going after me. 

Have you ever had serious mental health issues and had to deal with that and psychiatrists and psychologist who think they know more about mental health than God, and the pills they prescribe, and those pills' rough side effects? 

Perhaps people who have not had that gruesome experience should come back in their next lifetimes as distraught, tortured mentally ill Americans, who wish they knew a veterinarian who would put them down? 

Owen

There is an interesting article in Canada's only national progressive Christian magazine, Broadview on this. I hope I can remember to look it up and drop the link here. Otherwise you can 'google' the magazine and keywords and likely find said article.

Another Canadian poet, Al Purdy is now generally understood to have chosen an assisted death. 

David

Lazarovitch wrote a lot on the topic (as any great poet does in his / her own manner). The Bull Calf hits hard on this. 

man of aran

MAID is an abomination sliding down the slippery slope every sensible person feared as I write this.  

Mr. Raven

This is pure evil, how can we stop it?

man of aran

It is pure evil. The opposition Conservatives are pushing against the slide with members bills. That’s something. But the message needs to reach the public in a big way. Take it out of politics, stop the euphemisms and faux compassion. 

Sloan Bashinsky

Where should it reside, if it's not in politics? The Canadian public doesn't already know about it? I wonder how Mother Nature feels about MAID being indiscriminate? I wonder if she feels she and the planet and humanity would be better off if MAID is freely available? In the American Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers paid high homage to Nature and Nature's God.

man of aran

Getting the law changed is a political process, but understanding the implications of the issue as a life and death matter goes well beyond that, especially partisan rhetoric. I don’t think Canadians understand what is happening. It started as a ‘good’ and now it is turning rotten. As for Mother Nature, I will respect her views in accordance with the flourishing of human life. She’s here for that, not for a culture of death, which is what MAID has become. 

Sloan Bashinsky

I don't live in Canada and I can't know how the MAID law is affecting Canada, other than what I hear and read, such as this today. My concern is old people, who are forced by law, cultural norms, their families, friends, doctors, ministers, etc. to live as long as possible, regardless of their condition and what they think or can't even think because their minds are gone. The Canadian law should not be used to let people kill themselves just because they are unhappy. Yet, I see plenty of that happening in teens and above via booze, which is perfectly legal for 21-and older, and it is a drug, regardless of what the booze makers, ad agencies and politicians call it.  

man of aran

Your concern is normal, IMO. Up for debate, perhaps, but normal. Until recently, that's how the law was limited in Canada, as a matter of dying with dignity for those who are truly terminal and suffering great pain. Starting next year, all manner of situations will be accepted for the 'service', including mental conditions. The real consequences of this have yet to hit the Canadian people. That's why the people need to know and talk about it more, not just let it be debated in parliament. By the way, you're not 'a fool', except insofar as we all are.  

Sloan Bashinsky

:-) For many years, I wrote almost daily to afoolsweorkneverenfs.blogspot.com. Then came a string of new blogs, where I pecked away for a while, and the blogs were converted to books, which an internet library accepted- archive.org. From what you have described, it seems the Canadian Parliament opened Pandora's box. I'm only in favor of the hopelessly suffering being sent on their way, instead of tortured to their last breath - to make religions and capitalism happy?

In March 1994, this poem fell out of me:

Only fools rush in

where angels fear to tread,

but if there were no fools,

who'd lead the angels?

For about a week after that, I felt something huge and wonderful squeezing itself into me. It was not of this world. Then, a voice told me, "This thing coming into you is your angel twin. All people have an angel twin, and yours will live out the rest of your life with you. By the way, this is your son."

My senior year in law school, my 7-week-old-son died of sudden infant death syndrome. His death so disturbed me that I was never able to fit myself into any plans my father and his father and I had for me. I kept trying, of course, but it never worked. And well, it seemed I was fated to be a fool.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com