№ 767. The Salt Doll

Screenrant

A salt doll journeyed for thousands of miles over land until it finally came to the sea. 

It was fascinated by this strange, moving mass quite unlike anything it had ever seen before. 

‘Who are you?’ the Salt Doll asked the sea. 

The sea smilingly replied, ‘Come in and see.’ 

So the doll waded in. The farther it walked into the sea, the more it dissolved until there was only very little of it left.

Before that last bit dissolved, the doll exclaimed in wonder, ‘Now I know what I am!’”

№ 702. Six Feet Under

The pandemic and its disruptions are finally beginning to recede in the United States, but the vast scale of collective loss the country endured — and that some areas continue to endure — is hard to fathom. “Dying and grieving and losing and surviving are all experiences that we as a culture, as a people, as humanity, are grappling with in such an unrelenting way right now,” Robin said. “It feels like that aspect of the show, while always relevant, has become even more universally so.”

We have been shaken by the presence of death, but life still beckons to us, asking us to find a way to carry on. Ball sees the show as communicating a simple but profound message that remains as relevant now as ever. “The thing is, we die!” he said. “So deal with it, and live your life.”

“Don’t hold yourself back from fear,” he added. “Because you’re going to die anyway.”

№ 591. “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

Pinterest

 

Indeed, he was a proponent of talking openly about dying and grief, something that came with difficulty for many people, he said. “Death has come out of the closet,” he told The New York Times in 1994.

“For so many years people thought that if they didn’t talk about it, death would go away,” he continued. “It was the immorality of mortality. But for the first time, people are willing to acknowledge that living is the leading cause of death, and they want to talk about it.” He counseled mourners with his often-used adage “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

 

Hedgeye

 

After Rabbi Grollman retired from Beth El to focus on writing and counseling, he returned there occasionally to recite the Yizkor, a memorial prayer for the dead, and regularly addressed the congregation into his 90s.

“Obsessing about death can lead to paralysis, while ignoring it can squander opportunity,” he told The Times in 1994. “The important thing about death is the importance of life. Do what you have to do now. Live today meaningfully.”

 

№ 523. If I Die Young

If I Die Young
The Band Perry
 

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, oh-oh 

Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors
Oh, and life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even gray, but she buries her baby
The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song 

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger
I've never known the lovin' of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holding my hand
There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever
Who would have thought forever could be severed by 

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls
What I never did is done
A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singin'
Funny when you're dead, how people start listenin'

 If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, oh-oh

The ballad of a dove
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save 'em for a time when you're really gonna need 'em, oh

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time

So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls

№ 486. Covid 19 Deaths in Numbers: Finding a Context

Newsday

According to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tally, today July 7, 2020, the total global deaths from the coronavirus is 538,796.

It is a staggering number.

To help understand this statistic, I'll try to compare it with other data generated on deaths caused by catastrophic events in the past. Just a few examples:

1. The total number of deaths in World War I was about 15 to 22 million.

2. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished in World War 2, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).

3.  A total of 1.5 million people died from TB in 2018 (including 251,000 people with HIV).

4. Haiyan, one of the deadliest Philippine typhoons on record, killed at least 6,300 people in 2013.

5. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused a combined total confirmed deaths and missing of more than 22,000 (nearly 20,000 deaths and 2,500 missing).

№ 441. Listen, O Drop

"Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret,
and in exchange gain the Ocean.

Listen, O drop, bestow upon yourself this honor,
and in the arms of the Sea be secure.

Who indeed should be so fortunate?
An Ocean wooing a drop!

In God's name, in God's name, sell and buy at once!
Give a drop, and take this Sea full of pearls.”

--- Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi (1207–1273)

№ 360. Ecclesiastes 3

This Sunday, I read once more, a reminder letter. A cousin just died. Last year, it was another cousin. Before that, my aunts. It's been a succession of passing.

Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version (KJV)

1  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

№ 239. Heaven—Haven

Heaven—Haven

Remembering those who passed in 2015

A nun takes the veil


I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.

And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)

№ 238. Advent

The advent of grace
And death permeates
Existence like light to panes.

Details of Pope John Paul II's miraculous chair
exhibited at the UST Museum

№ 222. Two Funerals and A Film About Black Death

We visited two funerals this week and to cap it off, I finally finished watching the The Seventh Seal.

Bart would say, "¡Ay, caramba!". I would say, "Tick tock".

First Funeral (Sunday, October 11). A close friend since kindergarten days (almost 40 years of friendship), a cardiologist, had to go through the last three or so months of his mother. His mom was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer last July. The cancer has metastasized to the lungs. It was again an issue between curative or palliative. In the end, doctor friends advised palliative care.

I was called to the hospital last Sunday to advise on end of life issues. She passed away three days later, survived by her husband, two daughters, two sons and a number of grandchildren.

Second Funeral (Wednesday, October 14). An officer at work confided that her father, a chronic diabetic, was undergoing renal dialysis. That was May, five months ago. He passed away last Monday, four days before his 75th birthday.

Our laminated lives seem both too brief and yet too lengthy. How is meaning and measure appreciated? Is it achieved, gained or obtained? Does one decide whether to view life through the lens of kairos or chronos, or both, depending on the need?

№ 187. Deathly Sunday Thoughts

"De Beauvoir anticipates Sartre's death. She knows he is dying, but she cannot tell him. Existentialism's acceptance of death does not console her." --- A Farewell to Sartre


 

"Every man dies. Not every man really lives." -William Wallace, Braveheart

Nobody really wants to think about their own mortality, but the cold truth is that sooner or later, it’s going to happen. Now, your personal beliefs on whether or not you will ascend to Heaven, reincarnate, or simply just be dead don’t really matter; you’re going to leave a body behind when you go. It has now become a custom to either pump dead bodies full of formaldehyde and seal them into a steel and concrete vault or be cremated and have the ashes just sit in an urn.

№ 149. Eyes Fastened with Pins

Eyes Fastened with Pins
by Charles Simic 

How much death works,
No one knows what a long
Day he puts in.
The little
Wife always alone
Ironing death’s laundry.
The beautiful daughters
Setting death’s supper table.
The neighbors playing
Pinochle in the backyard
Or just sitting on the steps
Drinking beer. Death,
Meanwhile, in a strange
Part of town looking for
Someone with a bad cough,
But the address is somehow wrong,
Even death can’t figure it out
Among all the locked doors ...
And the rain beginning to fall.
Long windy night ahead.
Death with not even a newspaper
To cover his head, not even
A dime to call the one pining away,
Undressing slowly, sleepily,
And stretching naked
On death’s side of the bed.

№ 55. Strong and Hard: 7 Billion

The human race is now 7 billion strong. But the ants easily outnumber us with a quadrillion (wikianswers) swarm from super colonies and some such megapoli (BBC News). They say that the population climb we are embarking is a steep curve. Alarm bells and Malthusian echoes are again being sounded to temper our fertile imaginations and inclinations. Many claim that the resources which are already stressed and stretched to irresponsible limits can dissipate further with nothing reserved for the future generations.

Yesterday we just visited the dead. After that long litany of titles, saints and honors such as the "Rose of Sharon", "All ye holy Angels and Archangels" and "we beseech Thee hear us", we went for a stroll. 


We noticed that it was a little less crowded, maybe because, this year, our family rituals were advanced by two days---before the November 2 crowds. There were also several vacant niches marked by a red square with a Chinese character for "Fu" or luck. The resting spaces were still empty because the beneficiaries were still living. 

Still, even with millions passing away, the rate of population increase has outpaced the death rate. Is October 31st a happy day to celebrate the 7 billion living before our official days for the dearly departed: All Saints's and All Souls's (7 Billion)?

I hope we're really lucky to be alive. And, with such red hot luck, I also trust that the tides bring us alternative thinking, food supply and energy. There should be enough for everyone. That's an imperative and not just an option. Oh well/hell.

№ 54. Dreadlines

Dreadline
noun

"The most final of deadlines; a critical target date which, when missed, plunges a project deep into a terminal spiral and you in the crapper.

The deadline was last Thursday but I ain’t sweating it. Dreadline’s still next week." (predatorinchief)

№ 53. To Remember Is To Suffer

N is for noir, nimbus, nitrogen and nocturnes, from Lettrines

I read about this film in Gibbs Cadiz's "Forgiveness in the Age of Terror".

A few weeks back, I searched and grabbed a torrent. And when I finally decided to have time, sit down and watch the Cannes Grand Prix winner, the subtitles were missing! I thought, this couldn't be another one of my "French 4: A Nightmare on Kostka" specimens.

Flashback to college.

№ 45. iElvis

He was a wizard of the first order.

He had conjured both marketing hypes and niches---which had us enthralled, corrupted and addicted. Only he could produce, with a sleight of hand, consumer technology that is magic. Everyone else is reduced and separated by the Red Sea either as a parishioner drunk with his vision or a philistine mocked with envy.

"'What made Steve Jobs truly great,' U2 singer Bono said Thursday in a statement, 'is that he was only interested in doing truly great things. He was bored by an easy ride or easy profit. In a world littered with dull objects, he brought the beauty of clean lines and clear thought. [He was] one of a very small group of anarchic Americans who through technology literally invented the 21st century. We will all miss the hardware-software Elvis.' (LA Times)

On a related note, iPhone has this neat, sentient (almost?) voice command interface. Why SIRI?! Somebody asked if this stood for "Steve Incarnated Robot Interface."

Until the next iPhone iteration, then. Not 4s but a version 5, please. Maybe this time SIRI will feel, sound and look like Steve Jobs. One more, lace the chips with his DNA?



Bento Box:

Steve Job's DNA in vitro? (LA Times)