On life and the inevitability of death. Have you ever wondered about gorillas? A gorilla is a very strong built great ape with a large head and short neck. Gorillas are the largest member of the primate family. Gorillas are quiet, shy, peaceful, and live in central Africa and tropical rainforests. Several thousand years ago, gorillas split from its closest relative the chimpanzees. There are four types of gorillas, being Eastern lowland, Western lowland, mountain, and cross river gorillas. Ecology is how organism interact with one another and the environment. It is the study of relationships between two living organisms. Last breath. Gone forever. Nature takes its course. Death is inevitable for everyone. The thought becomes unnerving when one takes time to think that eventually it will happen to them. Younger adults and children tend to blow it off, thinking that because they are young, it won’t happen to them. Dying is certain, but the timing is not. As people become older, the fear of dying in this death denying culture becomes more prominent in their thought. However, what if illness and death become sooner than we thought or they were unprepared for what was to come? People want to leave Earth as peacefully and painlessly as possible. If the patient is at the point in their life that they need medical equipment to sustain life to keep organs running while spending thousands of dollars of burden to their family, then what actually is their quality of life? This is a continually rising ethical concern in the medical field. It’s a matter of sustaining life in hopes that a patient will recover versus “giving up” and letting the patient die naturally and faster. This becomes even more challenging when the actual patient is unable to say their wishes and the literal life-or-death question is at hand of a loved one watching their friend or family member be kept alive from machines. Culture today seems to be too optimistic regarding death. We are so afraid of dying that we have no choice but to be a culture of life. Today’s American society is a death denying culture that cannot determine when it is the correct time to finally let go. That is what gorilla unko is truly about.
