The most poignant last words I heard from someone about to die, and did 2 hours later:
"I don't want to die."
Gives one a lot to think about.
Doesn't seem poignant, I think this is sad. In a previous comment I said, "In America we have an odd relationship with the inevitable. Sometimes people get a terminal diagnosis, and sometimes they fight it. ..." [0]
Fighting the inevitable is not a noble way to go. Sometimes people can forestall their passing for a few weeks, months or years, but the reaper comes for us all. There are a lot of hucksters who steal with the promise of giving us a little more time...
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20224523
Children should be exposed to the wisdom of this quote, maybe from Tecumseh, maybe from some other native American:
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
"When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
"When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.” [1]
Whether or not there's a divide to go over, I think it important to not fight the inevitable. Make the most of the time you have, but don't fear the reaper [2].
[1] https://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/11/17/tecumseh-die-li...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVn6b9QQZeM - "The song, written and sung by lead guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, deals with eternal love and the inevitability of death." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Don%27t_Fear)_The_Reaper
As someone who has been quite close to death and recovered, I can say with 100% certainty you truly have no idea what that bone-chilling terror is to know that you could well and truly die soon and there's nothing you can do about it.
The unknown is one of the most terrifying things known to mankind. Death is the ultimate unknown. Why else would so many religions involve either an afterlife or reincarnation? Because believing we will turn to dust and cease to exist is incredibly tough to grapple with!
So yeah, good luck on dying as the valiant hero bravely staring down the long sleep!
I knocked myself out, nearly drowned, and don't remember 2 weeks. Phased back in over the course of about 6 months. I thought that was basically like being dead, but I've since reconsidered.
Modern Americans don't deal well with death, maybe because we're led to think it's avoidable. I've been watching some movies of the civil war period recently. There were lots of casualties, much more so than previous wars. WWI and WWII and Vietnam were bloodbaths too (more for the Vietnamese civilians than the US soldiers).
The japanese gave their kamakazi pilots meth to help them feel immortal -- soldiers might have survived the skirmish, but being a kamikazi was a death sentence. The japanese were more ... cavalier about dying, which I think helped them to be more efficient fighters.
Pre-modern Americans must have been more realistic about dying. I think it'd be easier to make smart political decisions with the assumption that we're all going to die eventually, than with the assumption that death is optional.
But I feel that assuming this perspective is better than the other one (about not wanting to die) in this respect (for this particular thing about wanting to live or die on one's deathbed) is just a way of rationalizing death rather than accepting that people just have different natures.
One of the recurring characters on Star Trek were the omniscient immortal Q. One of the recurring subplots was of the Q getting bored of being immortal. "For us, the disease is immortality." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqvxufh6ZDo
It's one thing to have purpose, or meaningful things to do. Sometimes people get to the place where they're just taking up space. My mom's 97 year old friend (stroked at 89, can't communicate) spends 7 days a week in her little room at the care home. We try to visit semi-regularly, but that turns out to be about two hours a week, or every-other-week. I've heard lately she's getting herself out of bed and falls. She is kept alive, but she doesn't really care to live. I think she was able to express this to her helper, when she was living at home...
Speaking of Star Trek, Picard spends his entire spin-off series waxing lyrical about how death is so meaningful but when faced with his own death he [SPOILER ALERT] opts to become immortal instead.
It's clear that you rage against the dying of your light constantly (as do we all, as we should) since death through inaction is available to us all daily and yet you choose action.
Considering you don't take your own advice and actively consume water, it is hard to believe you.
There is no nobility in surrender. There is no reward for acquiescence. Resistance to the bitter end, squeezing everything you can from life while you can, and making the most of what has been gifted to you - that is the noble course.