It's always seemed to be a pity to me that you have to be dead before anyone feels moved to say what they think about you. Such a wasted opportunity. I want to know - Now. As far as I can see finding out is probably the only thing that makes life after death a good idea.
There aren't many people I really want to meet up with again in the afterlife & would they be the same age as they were when they died? In which case they would mostly be younger than me. I certainly don't want to spend time dodging the people I didn't get on with - For eternity. It also seems to me that the afterlife must be even more crowded & noisy than Oxford & that's bad enough.
No give me oblivion any time. Much more restful.
But I would really like to know what sort of impression I have made on the people I have met in my journey through life. Good or bad - Really, I would. If it was good I could feel a self satisfied glow. If it was bad I could try to change before it's too late - Maybe. More likely I would probably try to justify my behaviour.
This train of thought was sparked by a funeral today. It was as nice as these things can be. Two Euologies full of the interesting & often funny memories of the sons of my friend. Things I didn't know about him. The whole thing conjured him up and made him live again briefly. It was all appropriate to him & as non religious as he was.
Funerals are for the living not the dead. It was nice to see friends I haven't seen for a very long time & find out what they have been doing. It was good to share memories of the friend who died. We all need to mark the passing of family & friends. It can be hard or uplifting. It can provide support to those closest to the deceased or be an ordeal. It is a necessary ritual though.
I'm glad we tend to celebrate a life now rather than mourn a death. We all have to die, but each life was important in some way to someone.
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