Weekly gathering on April 11, 2016

This is the first week of Heaven as on-duty chairperson.

Next class (4/18) will begin from 13:20 due to the air raid exercise between 13:30 and 14:00

Tom: starting from next class, for those who host need to send a summary of 200-500 words to him.  Then he will arrange these and post them to our blog.  Thanks to Rosie’s recommendation, Andy is relieved and does not need to take notes hereafter.

Today’s agenda:

Rosie: movie sharing “The Final Lesson”

This is a 2015 French drama film, based a novel published in 2004. And the movie will be released on May 6 this year in Taiwan. The brief plot is: Madeleine, a 92-year-old activist, announces it on her birthday party that she will manage to decease on a specific date because she wants to pass away with dignity and hope her children get prepared. How to decease well (善終)gets increasing attention recently.  This topic really resulted in lots of discussion at class. And it is quite impressive that some of our members have already signed the document預立安寧緩和醫療暨維生醫療抉擇意願書and communicated it to their families and loved ones.

Andy: book sharing “歡喜看生死” (Explore Life & Death with Joy)

This book refers to how to live well and decease well. It is in the Q&A form and easy to read. Though it is written based on Buddhism, non-Buddhist can still read it and get some inspiration definitely. He mentioned some ideas regarding how to decease well such as DNR (do not resuscitate), HPC (hospice palliative care), no life-sustaining medical treatment, AD (advance directive), etc. He also promoted body donation and organ donation.

Little Jenny: cartoon sharing “Chibi Maruko-Chan” (櫻桃小丸子)

The cartoon was broadcast from 1990 in Japan. In Taiwan, it started from 1994.  She has watched it since then and becomes Maruko fan. And her nickname is Maruko as well because of some similarities: hair style, small eyes, and not tall. She introduced the leading actress with details: 9-year-old, third-grade, childish characters, etc.  She ended her introduction with the Maruko dance in its theme music but sung in English version. And all the members stood up to dance with her and changed to an easy mood after the serious topics from the above 2 hosts.

Tammy: magazine sharing “How it works”

Initially, she wanted to introduce the autobiography of Melinda Gates or blood science. But she gave up because both were too difficult. So she mentioned this magazine, which introduces popular science in a simple and interesting way so readers can understand these easily. Here were some topics: Gecko robot, door-to-door air travel, sleeping beauty fish (lung fish) surviving 3-5 years without water, mother robot producing baby robot, etc.

Sharow: event sharing

First, she sang a “song” to respond the topic mentioned by Rosie and Andy.  Then she narrated an unforgettable story. At least 25 years ago, one guest in her tour group passed away within 24 hours just after the flight from Taoyuan to Chicago because of 2 tumors around liver and thrombosis (血栓) resulting from the long flight time. Fortunately, she handled this case correctly to send him to a hospital in a short time, so she did not get any trouble. The lesson she learned is do what you believe it is a right thing to do.