ENGLAND 2/15-2/18

I was lucky to have been able to spend three days with my wonderful cousin Alice, her husband Tom, and their beautiful black lab Elsie! Our time together was spent in Worcester and Malvern, which are two cities near one another, both about two hours away from London. I am so happy to have finally gotten a peek into her life in England. Most of our times together growing up took place in the US.

ROSE

We climbed the Malvern Hills (6 inches too small to be mountains), visited a number of pubs, and had a wonderful dinner made by my Uncle Chris. I was so happy to see him walking around, as he has been through two knee surgeries in the past year. My Rose was spending this time with all of them and getting to see Alice in her element in her hometown.

BUD

I want to share a bit about a conversation Alice and I had on that Saturday night that changed my stance on something I have gone back and forth with for years. This time, there will be no going back. We were discussing the need to provide humans with a choice in creating a health directive that states whether they should be kept alive if their brain function is below a certain level. This level would need to be determined using scientific methods, of course. The question is whether someone should be able to decide, at a time when they are “clear,” whether they should be kept alive or allowed to pass with a bit of assistance when their brain is no longer functioning at a level where they have any recollection of their family, loved ones, and day-to-day activities. There would need to be no chance of improvement, of course, which is where some issues may arise.

We quickly dove deeper and began the discussion of where we draw the line for human life and who can take it away. One thing led to another, and we found ourselves discussing the death penalty. In recent years, I had started leaning towards the belief that if people have repeatedly committed unforgivable crimes, they should no longer have the right to live. I realize now that this view came from looking at the issue through a short-term lens, prioritizing economic factors and protection from extreme criminals. I shared my original thoughts, and Alice gracefully asked me to expand on this. She was so rightfully passionate about this subject, and I am happy she was able to get me to look at it in a different way.

I see now that my view was overlooking some of the core values that make us who we are. Alice brought up a really good point, stating that “if a young sibling punched another and the parent punished that child by beating them, how do you think that child is going to grow up?” As a result of these actions, we are teaching our children that older/bigger people can beat up the smaller and weaker ones. If someone kills someone and we then react by killing that person, aren’t we teaching that lesson over again? What does that say about who we are and where we are heading? The death penalty may be a short-term win for the economy, but it is a recipe for disaster when it comes to long-term success for humanity. We need to be an example that human life is not to be taken by others.

THORN

My thorn is a tough one to pinpoint as these days were so awesome! I will try to balance the length of my bud by keeping my thorn short. My thorn was simply keeping my energy levels up while fighting a bit of jet lag. I wanted to spend as much time with everyone as possible, so this is always a struggle when dealing with any type of time change.