Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Passing Over






When we meet again?
A friend of mine just died and I'm hearing all this stuff again. What does it mean?
I understand it is a comfort to the family and friends to think that the bereaved will be sitting at the right hand of The Lord and all will meet again in the afterlife to have cocktails and talk about old times. That talks makes me uncomfortable.
Like when a musician or singer dies and everyone post on social media that they will join the incredible band up in heaven. Really? Do Jimi, Janis, Jim, Brian, etc. want another player?
First of all, I don’t think the rock & roll lifestyle means you will be taking the up elevator. Secondly the amount of egos involved in a band of that size would cause some really bad music.
Still I wonder why we fantasize about this imaginary place that we are suppose to go to when we croak. Sure I get that we can’t just accept that a body that has stopped breathing is gone forever. What about that turtle bought at the corner 5 & dime you put in a shoebox and thrown in the trash?
Culture has formed a ceremony and an industry for disposing the corpse. There are wakes (sometimes with an creepy open coffin) and a funeral to drop the body into the ground (because we stink when we rot, unless we set us on fire, then we still stink) and then the usual memorial service to remember the one who has passed over.
That someone is missing haunts us more than any Halloween thought. So we find a fantasy, like clouds and wings and harps that gives us solace in the inevitable. For we will all follow?

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