Praying for a pokkuri moment isn't just for the Japanese people anymore.... OPED COMMENTARY

reprinted from the Providence Journal in Rhode Island:

When it’s time to meet your maker, do you want to hang in there as long as possible, even if you are bed-ridden, in pain and in an assisted-living residence, or do you just want to “pop off”? In Japan, there’s a temple devoted to popping off, or pokkuri in Japanese.

I recently ran this concept by a senior writer, 67 — who knows a thing or two about death and dying, and living and life. After reading my note, he tweeted on his Twitter: “Pokkuri — the Japanese word for popping off suddenly. There’s even a Pokkuri goddess.”

It’s true, in Japan, every year, thousands of elderly people visit Kichidenji Temple, in Nara Prefecture, where they pray for a pokkuri death — preferably during sleep or a sudden heart attack — so that they are not a burden on their families during their final days. According to The Economist, more and more pokkuri-dera temples in Japan are now getting on the pokkuri bandwagon, some for holy reasons, some for financial gain.

Maybe pokkuri is a good concept to borrow from the Japanese as a loan word from the East?

I am beginning to think so.

Not everyone agrees, although humor is part of the reaction. One e-mail correspondent told me “Those crazy Japanese! What will they think of next?” Another told me: “The boomers will get to know it & pray 4 it w/ the future of health care.”

A philosopher told me: “But when pokkuri happens in the middle of the night, a spouse or family is/are often bereft of the chance to say goodbye.”

Dr Susan Long, an American professor who has written a book about pokkuri in Japan, “Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life,” thinks that it’s time for Americans to adopt this Japanese word.

“But pokkuri is not always pretty, since it can also mean being hit by a car or having a heart attack at work,” she told me. “The wish for pokkuri in Japan is not so much about the very last days of life as it is a response to the chronic disease burden that comes with advanced longevity.”

In Japan there are dozens of Buddhist temples devoted to pokkuri. In America, there are no temples for “popping off,” as far as I know, and there is no word for the concept in our common vocabulary.

But maybe it’s time to borrow this word from Japan and make it our own.

LINK
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_taiwan16_06-16-10_BNISA44_v16.1d637cc.html