HW 18

My experience of this Thanksgiving fit into the anti-body vs body centered practices of our culture. The food pleasure supplement completely dominated and focus of the event. This is always the case with thanksgiving. Everyone from the family makes some food and brings it to one place and everyone has a huge feast. No one worries about what they're eating they're not worrying about their body but just eating and connecting with each other. The food wasn't completely unhealthy so in a way it was both anti-body and body centered practices.
This year there wasn't really many other pleasures practiced. Usually the family is more active and doing fun things but this year everyone just sat around. Some of the family all sat together and watched a movie. The others just sat around in other places and did things like talking, playing pool and watching TV. I think the rainy day out kind of affected everyone. Maybe if it was a sunny nice day out everyone's mood would've been different and everyone would have been more active.
The only background element related to illness and dying I could think of was the lack of movement. Like I said it was really rainy and dark out so I think this may have affected everyone where maybe people would've been out in the back yard or playing basketball or going for a walk. For me personally I felt good, I had a lot of energy and was happy as could be. The weather wasn't affecting my mood. I feel like there wasn't really any relation to illness and death because this is a holiday and everyone is getting together and having fun, so no one is trying to focus on negative things instead everyone is happy. Overall it was nothing special but a gooooood Thanksgiving none the less.

HW 17

I have little experience with illness and dying.  I have been very lucky I still have all of my grandparents and none of them have any serious illness and they're all in their 80's. Why is this though? Is it because my ancestors have been healthy with no diseases for generations? I have been sick but never really badly that I needed to be in a hospital.  My second cousin developed diabetes when he was about 11 or 12. It came out of nowhere, none of his father's or mother's families have had diabetes. He is the same age as I am, he has to give himself insulin and he has to always think about his blood sugar level, he knows what to do when it's too high and he can feel when it's too low. This makes me wonder how can we be healthy if something like this can happen? A disease just comes out of nowhere.. How can we prevent that? In our countries we may survive some serious illness that may cause death in other poor or 3rd world countries. I know someone that is sick with both diabetes and kidney disease. He needs to go into the hospital for dialysis once every week. But in this case both of his parents died from diabetes in their 50's. If he would've stayed in his country he would have probably not have survived to be as old as he is now.  
For dying, I've had a few family members pass away recently from old age and a heart attack. I don't know anyone dying now.  I've been taught that dying is part of the life cycle, everything that is alive will eventually die. I've been taught that everyone has there time to go, that's why it's good to fight illness because if it's not your time to go you'll survive. It's important to take care of yourself and celebrate life to understand your purpose in life.
I think the social norms around illness and dying is that you have to support that person.  Everyone sends in get well cards and flowers when someone is sick in the hospital.  When it comes to dying it is the same and people try to comfort the family and the person that may be dying. Another thing in our society is that you're not allowed to help a dying person that's suffering by letting them go. It's illegal to stop treatments and let the person die. I don't think this is necessarily right, I understand that it's a difficult decision and who can make the decision is also difficult but I think if the person is hurting and suffering and is ready to die they should be allowed to do so.