Terry Schiavo has died.
It has been a couple weeks now, and it seems there is no longer the fuss about this event than there was when she was still alive. Or at least still breathing.
There's a difference, see. At least I think there is. While the body can still function when the brain and higher-order cognitive abilities have been severely reduced or ended outright, there is no longer a way for a person to really live. You know, stop 'n' smell the roses stuff.
See a good movie, walk barefoot in the park, hold a child's hand as you cross the street. Those things are gone. Throwing Frisbee to the dog, hearing the cat purr, letting a horse gallop. Tasting a good steak, enjoying the smell of fresh-baked bread, feeling the burn at the end of a workout. All this, and many other less clichéd experiences, will no longer be possible for Terry Schiavo. But that's nothing new.
None of this has been possible for her since 1990. In a bad situation, dealing with an eating disorder, she succumbed to a potassium imbalance that left her brain irrevocably damaged from oxygen deprivation. There would be no miracle. She was not getting better.
This issue is about more than physical life and death. Let's be honest, it's really about spiritual life and death. The debate can only exist in the context of human spirituality. Without souls, we are no more than tasty meat for gators and bears. Actually not even that; human meat is not so good, or so I've heard. So we'll assume we're talking about souls here. Souls of people who can swallow their food, and of those who can't. That's why Terry Schiavo has a feeding tube, and why Michael Schiavo wants to remove it.
But is it killing her? When she could be kept "alive" by simply squirting paste through a tube embedded in her abdomen, is it unreasonable to demand that it must be done? It doesn't seem so, simply because her soul is in danger.
Right.
As if God doesn't know what to do with Terry Schiavo's soul. He sent Jesus for redemption of all our sins, but still requires certain religious ritual upon our deaths. The fact is, God will and has already taken care of it. Oh, and he also knows how to deal with the souls of the "unborn," too. This isn't his first day on the job.
If Terry Schiavo's spiritual death was back in 1990, then God has her soul and her body is nothing but an empty mortal shell worth about $1.98 in chemical components.
If her spiritual death can't happen until her last breath, then her soul has been trapped for fourteen years in a unique and total hell. In this case, there is no way to see her physical death as anything but a liberation of her soul.
Either way, it's about trusting God.
That, and preserving the real sanctity of marriage. The sanctity that comes from someone putting all their trust in another human being to take compassionate care of her when she can't do it herself. The sanctity that says, whatever you do, I believe you do it for my best interest, and I love and support and forgive you for all your actions on my part, now and for all time, even when I am gone.
I don't pray that God will welcome Tery Schiavo into his eternal love. I thank and praise him for having done it. And for being patient with those of us who would make Him and Terry wait.
