He stood at the commode thinking about a potential
major surgery and a conversation he might have with
the surgeon, “I’m not afraid of the surgery. I’ve had

a lot of surgeries over the years, but I don’t want pain,
because I have had a lot of psychic, mental, physical,
emotional, spiritual pain in my life and I really don’t

want anymore. I’m not an addictive personality so you
can give me whatever it is that will keep me in la-la land
until my body can get along by itself and don’t worry

about constipation; things move along pretty well for
me. If I were given a death sentence today, it would
be all right with me, speaking as a former hospice

spiritual provider, and as I heard from so many
of my hospice patients echoing what I just said,
‘I don’t mind dying; just keep me out of pain.’”