Brittany Maynard and the Myth of Dignified Suicide

Pictured: courage, dignity, and death that didn't serve a politically correct agenda

If you're alive and have spent any time on the Internet in the past few weeks, chances are you've heard the heartbreaking story of Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer who has decided to kill herself rather than suffer the effects of the disease. Like most of you, I read her story and was saddened by her plight, but I got stuck on one part of her interview:

“There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die,” Maynard told People.com. “I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease but there’s not. … Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying.”

And suddenly, I found her story more exasperating than empathy-inducing. What, exactly, is dignified about giving up?

How To Tell If You Are In A Walker Percy Novel

(With apologies to The Toast, whose series started it all.)

Thought Experiment: Walker Percy eyes you over a glass of bourbon. Do you: 
A. consider the aesthetic nature of bourbon and the superiority of drinking it straight?
B. wonder if bourbon can do for you what cake did for Proust?
C. raise a glass of your own?

A Triumph All Her Own!

Praised Be Jesus, everyone!

I'm back: I had taken a long hiatus for a good while now trying to balance, work, parish life and a social life, and I hope now I'll be able to make more time to write. This week, we entered the month of October, which is the Month of Our Lady of the Rosary. Just yesterday, we commemorated the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, signalling the end of the public apparitions of Our Lady there.

Don Juan of Austria, Prince of Memes

October 7, 1571

The Battle of Lepanto

That's a Game of Thrones reference. Heaven help me...

Juan was a Spanish Hapsburg, born a bastard much like his mopey counterpart in Game of Thrones, Jon Snow (of House Stark). 

Getting to the Heart of Christ's Perfect Love

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JMJ

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Fun fact! The Holy Shroud of Turin (the burial cloth in which Jesus’ body was allegedly wrapped) and all of the approved Eucharistic miracles (namely in which the Host observably became human heart tissue) have been tested, and the blood is always type AB. Based on the information at hand, it is logical to say that Jesus Christ’s blood type is AB.

Recently, I was thinking about this while sitting in front of Jesus in the Tabernacle with a gigantic, golden statue of Him crucified above. I was looking at the image of Him pouring out His Blood for the sins of many, and I prayed to Him in the Blessed Sacrament, “I have to admit… You look like You would’ve had type O blood. You look like the universal donor.” However, I could feel it in my soul that it’s no accident that Jesus Christ had type AB blood. God’s designs are deep, profound, perfect, beautiful; this would be no different. 

So, I thought and prayed about it — what I know about God, what I know about blood donation — and I even did some research. Here, I humbly (and excitedly) present my theory: