Jun 23rd, 2026 at 9:34pm (UTC)

(Moderators: DentonDoc, db, Jimbo)
‹ Previous Topic | Next Topic ›
Page Index Toggle Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7 Reply Reply Add Poll Add Poll Send Topic Send Topic Print Print
25 Going Alone by Michael Furtman (Read 11831 times)
TomT
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 1052
Location: Chicago Burbs
Joined: Aug 26th, 2007
Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Jun 30th, 2019 at 10:39am
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
This was posted on another canoe board and thought I would share.

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
solotripper
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 8111
Location: clarkston MI
Joined: Mar 14th, 2005
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #1 - Jun 30th, 2019 at 12:26pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
I'll have to check but I think this was included in his first fishing guide book that I bought about that time?

This is my idolized way to leave this realm.
I've watched too many friends/family lay in a hospital/nursing home, doped out of their minds and stuck full of tubes and IV's.

They don't even know where they are or who anyone is. Mercifully they sometimes pass quickly but often they linger for a long time especially if they have GOOD insurance.

  IMHO we treat our dying pets better than we do many humans when it's their time to go.

Dying in a place you love would be my preferred way to go if possible. Since that's probably not going to happen, then make it quick and fast.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
MossBack
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 505
Location: Indiana
Joined: Feb 23rd, 2010
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #2 - Jun 30th, 2019 at 2:40pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
I have recently been lobbying with my nieces and nephews by increasing offers of monetary compensation, to "Take Me Out"  at least 45 minutes before I have to be sentenced to the nursing home.

A couple have offered to do it now for free, but I think they are only joking.  I think?

MossBack
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
hoaf
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 10
Location: 55604
Joined: Jan 19th, 2014
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #3 - Jun 30th, 2019 at 5:04pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
Thanks for sharing.
My wife and I talk about this as "when the time comes to take our walk in the woods" with more seriousness than jest.  Then wonder if we will be of sound enough mind to even remember this choice when the time actually comes.   Huh  We shall see, but there could be no better way to leave this form, in my opinion, than by personal choice in a place you love rather than fighting it.


 

  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Jimbo
Moderator
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 4600
Location: Florida
Joined: Oct 6th, 2002
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #4 - Jun 30th, 2019 at 8:37pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
solotripper wrote on Jun 30th, 2019 at 12:26pm:
I'll have to check but I think this was included in his first fishing guide book that I bought about that time?



You have a good memory, ST!  I remembered it, as well, from the 1994 version of Furtman's "A Boundary Waters Fishing Guide" that still sits in a prominent spot on my bookshelf.  This piece appears as a sort of "epilogue" to the text. 

I'm glad to see it being referenced, still.  I know I've referred to it many times over the years in various conversations.  It's a real gem.

I may not actually BE "physically" up there when MY time rolls around.  However, you can bet some similar reminisces will be among the cherished memories I dwell upon during those last moments.

Hmmm, much hallowed ground where we've known and shared peace and great beauty; sounds to me like the ideal spot to ease into whatever comes next.

Thanks for re-posting, TomT!

Jimbo   Cool
  
Back to top
Facebook Facebook AIM AIM  
IP Logged
 
Marten
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 546
Location: IL
Joined: Feb 7th, 2010
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #5 - Jul 1st, 2019 at 2:28pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
Wow! What a great piece of writing. I was reminded of a canoe partner that had 35 years on me. We had shared many a campsite and nights at my old cabin in the northwoods. He was truly a man of the outdoors and shunned modern trappings. As he neared death one fall his family took him to the emergency room and there was a mixup and the paperwork he had signed about what measures to take were not noted and he was hooked up to a cluster of tubes and hoses. I was not family and told the nurse that when she asked. I said I was just a good friend that wanted to see him one more time. I entered his room and he looked over at me unable to talk for all the tubes hooked to his nose. I will never forget the wild look in his eyes that yelled "set me free." The paperwork was found and they did remove all the tubes and he was able pass away a week later.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
mpeebles
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 598
Location: Fond du Lac, WI
Joined: Feb 26th, 2018
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #6 - Jul 3rd, 2019 at 12:09pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
A very touching story.  I've oft wondered how I'm going to feel toward the end of life.  I currently have no desire to be around if the quality of life isn't there with me.  I guess I'll just have to jump that hurdle when I get there.

One thing I do know is what makes me happy.  One of those things is what we all have in common, a love for all things beautiful, especially if we have a paddle in hand.  I'm going to try to keep doing these things as long as I can.

There's a passage in the book "The Velveteen Rabbit" where the toy skin horse is talking to the toy velveteen rabbit about becoming "real" that goes something like this......

"Generally by the time you are real most of your hair has been loved off and you become loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things don't matter at all because once you are real you can never be ugly except to those who don't understand".

Somehow I think most of us have become real.

Safe travels........Mike
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
azalea
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 1084
Location: North Carolina
Joined: Jan 13th, 2004
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #7 - Jul 3rd, 2019 at 1:58pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
My father's father worked all his life for the railroad, and was a single parent, and my father grew up all around trains.  It was his passion and multiple times a year he would take off just to ride around the country on trains.  I remember going to the train station one day to pick him up and did not see him departing from any of the cars.  Then I looked to the front and he was climbing down from the engine/locomotive.

He was riding across canada on such a trip when they noticed he had not shown up for breakfast. A conductor discovered him dead in his cabin, having died of a heart attack overnight.  If only we all could be so lucky to leave this world that way.
« Last Edit: Jul 3rd, 2019 at 7:42pm by azalea »  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
MossBack
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 505
Location: Indiana
Joined: Feb 23rd, 2010
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #8 - Jul 3rd, 2019 at 2:37pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
" Living with someone having to feed me oatmeal, scares me more than dying "

Robert Duvall... from A Night In Old Mexico
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
solotripper
Inukshuk
Offline



Posts: 8111
Location: clarkston MI
Joined: Mar 14th, 2005
Re: Going Alone by Michael Furtman
Reply #9 - Jul 3rd, 2019 at 3:12pm
Quote Quote Print Post Print Post  
MossBack wrote on Jul 3rd, 2019 at 2:37pm:
" Living with someone having to feed me oatmeal, scares me more than dying "

Robert Duvall... from A Night In Old Mexico



  Great Line and a good movie as well.
If you're a wilderness paddler or outdoors person you're a very or fairly Independent person. The idea of being helpless with little or no chance of getting better would have to scare you.

  I don't like the idea of people feeling sorry for me either. Even WORSE, I start feeling sorry for MYSELF.


I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

David Herbert Lawrence
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7
Reply Reply Add Poll Add Poll Send Topic Send Topic Print Print
‹ Previous Topic | Next Topic ›

 
  « The Put-In ‹ Board  ^Top   

QuietJourney Forums » Powered by YaBB 2.6.0!
YaBB Forum Software © 2000-2026. All Rights Reserved.

Valid RSS Valid XHTML Valid CSS Powered by Perl Source Forge