shadow and light
Photo: Kalpita
Both of my parents have passed away in the year marked by the end of this September. I have not written much about it because it has been too close. I will probably be writing about it now, at different times, in different ways, because now I can. I'm not sure I have any readers at all, but if I do, I hope these passages will not depress. They are not meant to.
Death, as the Canadian Somalian-born rapper, K'naan, imparts in an interview with Mike Armitage, is just another side of life. And when one is surrounded by it, lives with it day-to-day, it is the shadow that illuminates the light. Our modern society is estranged from death and the cycle of nature. Births rarely take place in the bedroom with family gathered around. Deaths rarely do either. Only recently have our governments placed laws allowing people to take time off work, without penalty, to care for loved ones.
I am a mature adult, and my parents have died in the natural progression of the wheel that is life. Yet, I have not been in this place before, in this way, and many things are new and different.
posted by Kathy O'Brien at 1:57 pm
4 Comments:
Death? No such thing in this society! I am 28 years old and I have never seen a dead person in my body. I cry when i see a dead animal on the road. Why? Where is death celebrated on TV or in magazine? Nowhere. Most believe in celebrating youth. And, more frigteningly, we want to hold onto it at all costs. In Tibet, for example, what do they do with the dead? At 4,000 metres above sea level, there is no soft earth to bury loved ones. And certainly no trees to burn people with. What do they do? They chop up the dead bodies and feed the flesh to the birds and grind the bones into powder -- all while the family looks on. Gruesome? Maybe. But they don't fear death or mortality. In fact, death is something to celebrate, but also a teaching tool. Seeing a body as just bones and flesh makes you realize that - well, that's all there really is in life. All our desires are just there to satify the body. This view goes against the very premise of Western society that view death as a weakness, something to overcome.
You're right. It is seen as a weakness. My mother died of cancer, and it irks me when I hear the very common phrase, that someone "lost their battle with cancer". As if she ever had a chance.
Modern medicine has done wonders, but sometimes the inevitable is just inevitable.
While searching to see how findable my photostream is, I found my photo on your blog. I'm sorry about your parents but I'm happy that you are feeling strong enough to write about it now.
kalpita
Kalpita,
I looked a long time for a photo that represented what I wanted to say.
Thank you for taking the photo.
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