Grr
There are certain encounters you have in life that make you wonder about things.
Wonder what my funeral/memorial would be like. I joked to a friend everyone would be laughing and smiling the way I always do. That wouldnt be too bad; legacy, they say. Yahyah and throw candle sticks at my picture. Later got people come in underwear.
Wonder what the speeches, if any, would be like too. "We will always remember him as a guy who laughs for one hour straight in Ee Poh Lam's classes"..."We will always remember Kenneth as a guy who had a rabid interest in individualism. And toilet bowls."... "His undying silence in 04A6 will be fondly remembered"..."Let's go give him a new hairstyle."..."Shen jing bing."...
On a more serious note, I wonder how you would know your friend just died. As in seriously, what if it didnt appear on the front page of the newspaper, nor in news? Or if it did, but you just didnt happen to stay in touch with the news for a couple of days? Are you going to check the obituary section every day? Unlikely. So it remains fairly likely you're going to miss the death, and miss the funeral/memorial subsequently, especially if they get arranged within days of the departure. Yes true some other friends might call you up--but what if they dont, assuming that you'd turn up? Or what if, somehow, you lose contact with them- remember we're looking at decades down the road.
Expanding from that line of thought, you'd wonder just how long you and your buddies can keep that network intact, even if it's a one-to-one network. MSN? Don't count on it; in fact I wouldnt count on anything web-based. Maybe Im being paranoid but come to think of it it just takes one change-of-address (and phone line), one switch of mobile phone plans, and there, years of friendship become uncollectible things of the past. Allright maybe things wouldnt be THAT bad, because if you've changed your home address and all those kind of things your close friends should know, or they wouldnt be your close friends anyway. And then people will point out that these days all it takes is one message and the 'send all' button to update every friend's *database*. But nah, I'd rather remain wary of anything electronic, including handphones, because all it takes is one smart-aleck and his pet virus to take away everything. Backups? Who says you can't take them out too. Pen and a central address book is the way to go, you can't go wrong with that.
Dont laugh, because you wont be if such unprobable eventualities turn real. When it comes to years of friendship(s) I'd rather make the effort to do the necessary safeguards.
On a lighter note, I won't laugh if you come to my funeral in underwear.
Wonder what my funeral/memorial would be like. I joked to a friend everyone would be laughing and smiling the way I always do. That wouldnt be too bad; legacy, they say. Yahyah and throw candle sticks at my picture. Later got people come in underwear.
Wonder what the speeches, if any, would be like too. "We will always remember him as a guy who laughs for one hour straight in Ee Poh Lam's classes"..."We will always remember Kenneth as a guy who had a rabid interest in individualism. And toilet bowls."... "His undying silence in 04A6 will be fondly remembered"..."Let's go give him a new hairstyle."..."Shen jing bing."...
On a more serious note, I wonder how you would know your friend just died. As in seriously, what if it didnt appear on the front page of the newspaper, nor in news? Or if it did, but you just didnt happen to stay in touch with the news for a couple of days? Are you going to check the obituary section every day? Unlikely. So it remains fairly likely you're going to miss the death, and miss the funeral/memorial subsequently, especially if they get arranged within days of the departure. Yes true some other friends might call you up--but what if they dont, assuming that you'd turn up? Or what if, somehow, you lose contact with them- remember we're looking at decades down the road.
Expanding from that line of thought, you'd wonder just how long you and your buddies can keep that network intact, even if it's a one-to-one network. MSN? Don't count on it; in fact I wouldnt count on anything web-based. Maybe Im being paranoid but come to think of it it just takes one change-of-address (and phone line), one switch of mobile phone plans, and there, years of friendship become uncollectible things of the past. Allright maybe things wouldnt be THAT bad, because if you've changed your home address and all those kind of things your close friends should know, or they wouldnt be your close friends anyway. And then people will point out that these days all it takes is one message and the 'send all' button to update every friend's *database*. But nah, I'd rather remain wary of anything electronic, including handphones, because all it takes is one smart-aleck and his pet virus to take away everything. Backups? Who says you can't take them out too. Pen and a central address book is the way to go, you can't go wrong with that.
Dont laugh, because you wont be if such unprobable eventualities turn real. When it comes to years of friendship(s) I'd rather make the effort to do the necessary safeguards.
On a lighter note, I won't laugh if you come to my funeral in underwear.
10 Comments:
Later really. Think everyone there can't stop laughing.
But seriously a change of hairstyle is a must...
How can you laugh if you are dead?
I still keep the orbituary of a cherished friend in plastic. Frankly speaking, the act of keeping the articles the newspapers wrote of her is easy, but to talk to her at her don't-know-what-that-box-where-you-keep-the-cremated-ashes-of-someone-is-called, I am regrettably unable to keep up with the duty. The same problem exists before and after death for me: I always never knew what to say to her.
It should not be a blasé attitude that holds emotions together at a funeral, instead, it is the understanding, the empathy, that allows one to share sorrow for a tragic loss though not directly related.
Oh yes I forgot to say. You would know because someone who knows would call you up in a sober tone and relate to you the news, and in the process "share the shock". It is difficult for me to put this down in mild terms, but truly, it is a way for mutual parties to feel better... not so much that 'misery loves company', but more of 'sharing the burden' with someone you know who will remember the person as much you will... you get what i mean. Those whom you don't share so much affinity with, they'll probably get a sms instead of a phone call. The phone call is the powerful one.
Later the whole Singapore know
Umm..just one thing. The blase attitude is precisely the thing that would hold us together. At least, thats what I assume in my case.
Because we're living in it even now. And should I, or any of us [you know who you are], depart I am sure he/she would have wished we continue the tradition, and the rest would continue it because we know he/she would have wanted us to. [Very cliched line in funerals I think, but should be applied genuinely in this context nonetheless].
Apart from that, being--not deliberately of course--nonchalant about things would remind us of the way the Person Gone lived his/her life, and I guess the strongest emotions would be drawn as a result of that connection you make by living life like you would have back then with him/her. [I put in here nonchalant because that is one of the defining traits of me as well as my friends, it might be different for you. So basically while having a blase attitude wouldnt work out in other funerals it probably would down here]
So feel free to come in underwear. Later at the altar there put one toilet bowl.
Oh don't tempt me. Later kayak paddle found there too. Lol.
why the fascination with toliet bowls?...
Later the body wearing underwear also.
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