Balladeer Faces Death

Balladeer Michael Hills plays folk/country western music. His work is kindred to that of Woody Guthrie. He told me recently that such music is the poor white man’s blues.

With one solid Top Ten hit (Matchbooks and Phone Numbers) to his credit he has always found his greatest joy in music.

Composing lyrics for his six or twelve string guitar brings him great relief as well as pleasure. Throughout his life, he has always kept returning to the homey comfort of melodies that rock him gently and the socio-political message of ballads that once helped to shape this nation. It was a country whose wars he has always despised; from the homeless street urchin phase of his youth to his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War he hated wars and the havoc they wreaked upon others.

His efforts to resist the draft found him a medic on the front lines where he salvaged what body parts he could and, like the rest of his unit, was doused repeatedly in the deadly mists of Agent Orange.

His ‘Purple Heart’ body absorbed it all; the nerve-destroying chemicals, the endless landscape of broken bodies, some of which would never be healed, and the absurdity of fighting an endless war that many today realize was ‘unjust.’

Death is on its way to Michael now. The debilitating Agent Orange is staking its final claims upon him.

At 62 years old, he tells me today he’s got six months to leave (according to his doctor)…but maybe he’s got less time than that. Because he’s not going to wait until he’s blind and deaf; until he is catatonic and incapable of being alive. He distinguishes between this and ‘just living.’

Not one to wait around idle while death plays its fiddle – one of Michael’s most favorite instruments – he’s got plans; musical plans that include regular Saturday night gigs at Bill’s Pizza Shack in Prescott, Arizona and keeping his own instruments in top shape so that when Death comes, he’ll be ready to join the band.

Now, this is the Michael I know; have known for the past 28 years. This is the Michael whose gallant efforts and integrity – even in the end - I applaud.

Death, Dying and Afterlife: More Than Meets the Eye

More Than Meets the Eye
True Stories about Death, Dying and Afterlife
www.yvonneperry.net
ISBN 0-9753870-6-5

In More Than Meets the Eye, published by Write On! Publishing, author Yvonne Perry explores one of life’s greatest mysteries: death.

She takes on the topic in an easy to follow format. In a little more than 150 pages she explores our cultural ideas about death and the dying process in order to bring us to some understandings about life here and in the hereafter.

Basically she suggests that life and death are on the same continuum. That death is as inevitable as birth and the choices we make between those two points will touch us in the afterlife which she refers to as part of the cycle.

“As it is in heaven so it is on earth and vice-versa. Birth, death and rebirth are simply part of a cycle similar to the seasons of our earth. There are seasons for planting, growing, waiting, harvesting, fading and resurrection,” she writes in the book’s Conclusion.

Her thinking is similar to that exhibited in Einstein’s famous E=MC2. Namely that energy can never be created or destroyed. It is always in a state of becoming. She writes: "Energy replaces energy whether we see it or not. Death may seem like a dormant season, but it is far from it.”

The goal of the book is to celebrate the choices we have in life AND in death. Neither, she suggests, is to be feared.

“I can remember sitting in the back of the church and listening to the preacher talk about Heaven. If Heaven is so wonderful, I reasoned in my young mind, why are people so sad when someone dies and goes there?” Perry writes.

Why indeed?

Perry, a graduate of American Institute of Holistic Theology has spent a great deal of time and thought on how death can be embraced as a natural process that leads to other realms of reality. Utilizing the stories of those who have either had near-death experiences and/or have had interactions with loved ones who have passed on, she shows the many facets of experiences that are possible for the living.

These true story interviews are, in a way, folktales about death. Personalized accounts they each reflect back to the reader someone’s unique experience of death and each of those experiences share similar elements. For example, in near death stories each person returns to the living to continue working on this level of existence for the greater good of all. Those who do not return, move through the veils between life and death and experience spiritual opportunities that the living can only dream about.

More Than Meets the Eye offers hope and guidance (including a sample Health Care Directive) for those who are preparing for a transition to the Afterlife, and the caregivers and/or family members who know them. It also provides insights into the life/death cycle that motivate us to take advantage of the opportunities we have to know and experience more than meets the eye.