 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
||
|
||||||||||||||
 |
  |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
published February 07, 2008 |
 |
|||||||||||||
|
Leaving it to Faith There is one week in the past year that Jim Barton simply cannot remember. He has no recollection of the events that occurred or the people that were with him. That week is a blank in his mind. And after that week, Jim wasn’t sure if he would live past Christmas. Barton, former professor of religious studies at Ball State and former minister, was diagnosed with small cell testicular cancer in August at the age of 58. The blackout he experienced was a critical time in his battle with the disease, which had resulted in liver failure. After being diagnosed, the doctor explained that Jim’s exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical used as a herbicide while he was fighting in Vietnam, is connected to his condition. Even so, his diagnosis with cancer came as a shock, Jim said. “When you hear something like that, it takes a while to sink in,” he said. Jim’s cancer forced him to stop teaching at Ball State, and he has had some serious encounters in the hospital. The difficult times he has endured have led Jim to contemplate death. Although he thinks it is a little bit early in his life, Jim doesn’t fear dying. “There’s no reason to fear death. It’s going to happen to everybody,” Jim said. “It’s a part of life.” What happens after death does not worry Jim either. The afterlife is supposed to remain unknown, he said; and he trusts that God will take care of him when his time comes. Not agonizing over death and the afterlife “gives you time to live the rest of your life,” Jim said. Dr. Peg Schaffer, assistant professor in the department of religious studies at Ball State, says that traumatic events in someone’s life can affect the way that person views life and the afterlife. Death of a loved one or diagnosis with a terminal illness could cause a person to begin thinking about or reconsider ideas of an afterlife. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, for example, caused this to occur with many people, Schaffer said. Jim, however, has always viewed the afterlife the way that he does now, he said. While Jim believes that humans are not meant to know what comes after this life, he does not believe that the afterlife includes material surroundings. “I don’t believe that there’s a physical afterlife where you walk around on golden streets, and there are people up there talking to St. Peter,” Jim said. “God is spirit. God is love. Love doesn’t require physicality to exist.” Because doctors have not told Jim how much time he has, he is more concerned with the life he is still living, rather than the afterlife. Jim believes that it is important to live each day to the fullest. He would rather worry about how people will remember him when he is gone than what will happen to him, he said. He hopes that when people think about him and the life he led, they will smile. “A smile can’t be stopped. A smile lasts forever, more than words,” Jim said. |
|||||||||||||||
  |
|||||||||||||||
All content ©2007 Ball Bearings - Join our mailing list to get info about updates each week. Email us at ballbearingsonline@gmail.com