Today a good friend died.
He had been ill for every year I had known him but his final submission was a shock and the end a relief. Eventually every miracle has to end. His stubborn determination kept him on this plane long after many would have folded.
He was a wonderful warm cantankerous old bastard and I saw a lot of myself in him... and vice versa. I don’t have that strength but I have great role models.
I’m no stranger to death and funerals. Practice still doesn’t blunt the loss. It reminds me of the real big picture. So many in the West have no experience of this and hence the abject horror of it all. So many that run away and cannot face death and all its baggage face on.
I think that has a link to the ability to blank out the murder and suffering of so many that we in the West cause. As technology progresses the greater the distance between the killer and the killed becomes. You can’t see the whites of their eyes from 20,000 feet. You can’t see their fear and their pain. There is no contact with the human you are killing.
I sat on a train journey recently near some young women discussing how well their spouses were progressing in their air force careers. Whoopee... every bangle, bauble and perk was paid for by the wages of death and the corpses of anonymous strangers.
Violent death is no different - it just adds the other emotions of anger and revenge. That completes a circle that we should always avoid.
The next time we read of a murdered human anywhere in the world we should think –how would I feel if that was someone belonging to me? The millions in Iraq, the 10’s of thousand in Afghanistan, the daily trickle of children in Gaza. You get the picture.
Peace to your friend.
ReplyDeleteAmen to all you said. The picture is crystal clear.
Hey Chuckyman,...Nice return. I recently found out that I had lost a dear friend. During a period of separation several years ago, I moved into the spare room of a friend. Across the common driveway lived a young single mum, a very pretty brunette called Karen. Karen had two young boys, Mitchell and Corey, each to different fathers. As I would on occasion have my daughter for the day, it wasn't long before Karen's youngest, Corey, who was only a year older than my daughter, started to play with my daughter in the common area between the apartments. I was not searching for anything at the time, however, I was enchanted by this carefree and laconic young woman. We developed a close friendship and on occasion after putting the kids to sleep, talked broadly and with passion about the world; we did kiss now and then, never actually consummating the relationship, things were complicated.
ReplyDeleteThree weeks ago I bumped into a young mum that lived downstairs of Karen, she asked me if I had heard about Karen, no I said, quizzically, I hadn't had any contact with Karen for about 18 months. The young mum then told me that Karen had died three weeks hence of cervical cancer after a short seven month struggle. The moment froze me, I had recently come across a number of pictures of her whilst housekeeping my old document files, and had also(!) watched as her cellphone number was transferred from my old SIM to a new Phone.
Please excuse the convoluted nature of this comment; however, I was shattered by this News. It was a moment that grounded me in the here and now, since that moment, every death I read about or see as a graphic image during my surfing of the Net, reminds me that a 'life' is more profoundly attached to "LIFE" than its own single mortal coil.
You have my condolences, every life is precious...we have to win this war against the tribe of murderers:
FREE PALESTINE!
veritas
Poignant thoughts, Chuckyman. And my condolences to you
ReplyDeleteSorry for your loss Chuckyman. It is always hard to lose someone we care about even when we know it is a release from their suffering.
ReplyDelete"As technology progresses the greater the distance between the killer and the killed becomes. You can’t see the whites of their eyes from 20,000 feet. You can’t see their fear and their pain. There is no contact with the human you are killing."
I think is bang on. I never allowed my children to play violent video games which, in my opinion, was prepping them for the real time dehumanized killing our technology facilitates.
sorry to read this sad news C, for you and also for V. i often deal with people with very small problems who carry on, and i want to say to them 'do you think this is really such a big deal? have you any idea what people around the world endure just to survive daily life?' but they don't have any idea, or they don't care.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P.
ReplyDeleteand
Yes. The RAF. How can those fliers do it? It's a shocker.
I've been sending emails to any RAF address I can find and to Ministers of Defense.
What does it feel like being responsible for the carpet bombing of civilian areas of Libya?
What people are prepared to do to sustain a fucking career.
KB
Thank you all for your kind comments.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you sharing that with me Veritas. The hardest of losses are those where we do not get a chance to say our goodbyes - when possible futures are snatched away in a moment. I’m sorry also for your loss.
It really is a time to put a better perspective on the events in life and in the world at large. It takes a heart of flint to not to see the suffering in others.
As for the paid killers Kev I think the penny drops for the decent ones eventually. As for the rest let hell mend them.
Hi Chuckyman,
ReplyDeleteMy deepest condolences to you.
You're so correct about the conception of death in the west. I think that it is getting worse everyday with the worship of youth and beauty in the media. Don't we all know who really control the media? Naturally, they make the rest of us to swallow the bitter pills with 'em.
Hello and thank you Musique.
ReplyDeleteI think the Western society as it stands is bombarded with images of glitz, glamour and superficial banalities to distract people from the growing horror of what is done by those that really wield power.
It’s like a cheap conjurors trick- watch the shiny lights they cry while in the other hand they’re executing Bambi with a chainsaw.
The hypnotic trance is no longer working for so many. There are a lot of growing pockets of people that ‘get it’. The long planned for collapse and grab for ultimate control is just about ripe.
In depressing times, not all is doom and gloom. We are a strange species. In harsh times we often find compassion in the most unlikely of places.
The pills may be bitter but they may be like the medicines of old. The worse the taste, the better the cure.
I do every day.
ReplyDeletePeace to you and yours.
And thanks for your continuing strong and steady voice on these issues.
Suzan
The next time we read of a murdered human anywhere in the world we should think –how would I feel if that was someone belonging to me? The millions in Iraq, the 10’s of thousand in Afghanistan, the daily trickle of children in Gaza.