I think it was one of my residency mates who once lamented that for so many, the death of the mind and death of the body did not occur together. Too many with still brilliant minds died too young from Lymphoma or Leukemia or trauma. The body died before the mind was ready.
Too many whose bodies were still robust died of neuro-degenerative diseases. Their minds died before their bodies were ready. “The trick to dying is to get your mind and your body to die together,” he said. It may have been Abe or perhaps Eddie; we had plenty of fine minds to ponder such things in those days.
More recently, my FB friend, judge Gary Shelton, observed that he was increasingly annoyed by FB “friend requests” from folks who were already on his FB list of friends. More irritating still was getting friend requests from former friends who had already died. Something similar annoys me – getting birthday reminders from FB for folks who are deceased. Judge Shelton’s source of annoyance is malicious use of his own friend list to create fake accounts from which bogus friend requests are sent. The source of mine is the passing of a person without anyone deactivating their digital accounts.
Today, I had a notification from LinkedIn reminding me to congratulate a medical colleague who was having his 18th employment anniversary. I send congratulatory notes to my friends to celebrate their anniversaries except on occasions like today when my colleague has been deceased for several years. So, we have not only bodies and minds but also digital identities.
To paraphrase my thoughtful residency mate, “The trick to dying these days is to get the mind, the body, and our digital persona to die together and at the same time.”