Saturday, December 4, 2010

Death Note

I was watching Glee's "Special Education", and a particular scene got my curiosity-- Rachel asking Kurt "Do you ever fantasize about your own funeral?" I mean, how many people actually fantasize, or even think, to say the least, about their own Death?

Admittedly, I've been through that stage of being absolutely intrigued with death. I've been drawn to morbid interests early on starting through my Romeo and Juliet, and titanic and holocaust phase. It then grew into my obsession with Quentin Tarantino and war movies, until I discovered the concept of suicide when I was in the University. I even spent a great deal of research to know and understand suicide not just in a general and ordinary everyday discourse, but most of the underlying philosophical concepts about it.

I was also very into the discussions I conduct in my classes about Death and Dying. I loved my discussion on the metaphysics of death, the ethics of dying, and the many philosophical aspects of it. I can surely talk about Death, but I realized after a while that I was talking about Death as a concept, and NOT the experience of Death as related to my person, that is MY Death.

I am not gonna talk about what Death is (or what it is not as others prefer to talk about it)as a general concept. I would instead talk about MY views on MY Death.

So how do I like my death to be?

I want death to come in my 40s. I don't wanna die (too) old. I think I would have accomplished a lot at that age. I don't want the mere redundancy of living, so one experience of things and events would be enough for me. I would have traveled to (most) places I always wanted to be in, have eaten most of the food I wish, and things like that, and the ones I have yet to experience, I can just let them stay like that. Afterall, I don't need to experience everything in life, but rather, just need to experience what I have.

I don't want a weeklong wake. I just want it to last 2-3 days. I don't need a lot of people to come and visit my wake, too. I'd have a list of the people I want to be there, and its gonna be just a short list.

I am not really particular on how my casket would be. It can go in the shade of white, but I'd like it to be grayish or silver.

I want my clothes to be changed everyday in the 2-3 days that I would lie in my coffin, open for public viewing. I want my purple long sleeves, with a dark gray/silver tie and a black slim cut coat on my first day, then a classic black shirt and a red tie (still with the coat), on my second day, and finally, a 3-piece suit (white shirt with a butterfly tie and a vest, just like one in those classic movies)on my last day.

I want my wake to be at my aunt's place in the province (where my dad was laid on his last days), not too far from my family's house. Its a family house at a hill, with an open greenery, and a nice 360 degree view of everything in the surrounding. I want it to be quiet, and far from the busy city life. I feel like I've been in the city for most of my life, and would like to be back home on my last days.

I want my mom, and the rest of the family to do the traditional 'cooking' for my guests. My mom cooks very well, and I want her to cook the one I usually cook. My cooking has always been compared to my mom, and for the last time, I would like to have people taste how I usually do 'food'.

I already have a playlist prepared for my wake. I want these songs to be played repeatedly in my wake:

In the Arms of an Angel (Sarah McLachlan)
Strangers in the Sky (Jason Mraz)
Such Great Heights (Iron and Wine)
Collide (Howie Day)
I've Had a Time of My Life (Any version)
Fame (Irene Cara)

I also want a photo presentation on the last day of the wake. I want my friends to share photos I have with them.

Finally, I want my friend, L, or J, to do the Eulogy.

This isn't a farewell post. Neither do I feel Death coming,well, at least not so soon I hope.

Its just one of those days.

11 comments:

  1. I like this piece so much even if morbid.
    Ako naman i don't want any wake. I want to be cremated right away and then a wake can be held with the urn containing my ashes placed on the altar or on a table along with my picture. I don't any flowers and any monetary donations intended for me and my family be given instead to Pinoy Plus and Yafa. After my wake, my urn will then be placed in a columbarium together with the my mom's urn. :)

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  2. JDC, I actually don't think this is morbid. My thoughts on HOW I wanna die was deliberately omitted cuz its with Dying that I have issues with and can get really morbid.

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  3. hey hey.... i heard from my anak anakan THISB that you will join us sa YFL next weekend. Hope to meet you and see you. Ingat palagi

    Ako naman... i have my huling habilin when i die. gusto ko party. ayoko ng iyakan. It's a celebration of ones life... diba? hehehe

    hugsy!

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  4. Hi Trese,

    Yeah, I promised him that Ill find time to come on Wednesday. Lookin forward to meet you.

    Regarding death, yes, its just another part in all of us. =D

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  5. I love Glee, and yet when Rachel said that I was creeped out. In your little explanation, however, I feel a little more at ease about the post-mortem experience, or maybe lack thereof. What I often think about is what is it like to die, to be dead, and is there an afterlife. If there is an afterlife, great! I hope it's paradise! Yet, what would it be like if there is no afterlife. I can't really imagine what that would be like. Pure nothingness perhaps? But would it even matter? I wouldn't exist in a spiritual form if there is no afterlife. Now that I think about it, if we take the concept of ghosts (which I mostly believe in,) then there would have to be some form of existence beyond death. It's funny how I can come up with this stuff, being only in high school.
    PS, I hope your final wishes are respected and followed out by your loved ones when it truly is your time to depart from this earth. :]

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  6. Wow, you're still in HS. You just made me feel old(er).

    Anyway, here are additional thoughts-- What scares me is dying, not being dead. Its the process and not the state that creeps me out. I hate pain, thats why. On afterlife, I really don't believe in it. I think one lifetime is enough. In addition, I think afterlife is a projection of our desire for the perfect. Since we cannot find perfection with this life, we posit another perfect world which is the afterlife.

    Thanks for reading my bog and for sharing.

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  7. Interesting insight, yet I usually think that the afterlife is just our way of reassuring ourselves that the people we love who pass away are in a good place and that they are not completely gone. It gives us hope that when we die, we will see them once again. I truly hope that there is a heaven, and for the sake of all the evil people in the world, a hell too.
    Also, I am afraid of dying as well. I don't want my life to end in a sudden or dramatic way. I would like to die in my sleep around the age of ninety or so. I want to see the world before I die, as I've never even left my time-zone. When I am dead, I want to be cremated, and I want my family and friends to take my ashes and sprinkle them in the oceans or rivers near my favorite places on Earth. With the rest of my ashes, I would like my family to keep in a small urn, or if I have a daughter, in a heart shaped locket that she can always wear to keep me in her heart. This idea is also shared by my mom who would like to be in Hawaii after she is cremated. I will also take her ashes and keep them in a heart shaped locket. I want a simple funeral, with white roses and Easter lilies. I'd just need a simple funeral.

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  8. I stumbled across this discussion by accident while researching Nietzsche...

    Seriously, the degree of psychological ignorance coupled with theological bigotry and dogmatism displayed here is pathetic. Bwhahaha 'Ubermensch' indeed, what an ironic user-name considering the blatant mediocrity of your psyche.

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  9. Along with what could be described as either extreme denial or borderline delusion about the reality of death; vis-à-vis the undeniable utter absence of material attachment it entails. It's like seeing a group of facile 'tweens' knowing that Santa doesn't exist but desperately trying to cling to the comfort of the belief. Reassuring each other with subsequently meaningless reinforcement routines (akin to an elaborate funeral), telling each other "ooh I hope he exists, why else would we put milk out...", when just like the Christian faith, the whole thing is a farce, an act, a charade, they think if they repeat it enough it becomes true; their tiny little minds cannot cope with the reality of the alternative.

    Maybe the worst offence against the notion of intelligence in this discussion (there is a lot) is the assumption by multiple individuals, especially the OP, that they actually have any insight at all into what death and life will mean to them when the prognosis is best represented in days. Fuck me, that is arrogant, it's absurd actually... the quote "One lifetime is enough" and the paraphrase "I will have achieved all I desire in life by 40" really stick out as indicators that the minds that vomited forth such idiotic pretence are the best examples yet of why you should have to take an IQ test before being allowed to post on the internet.

    Hilarious though, really, if nothing else at least I got a laugh out of reading this page.

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  10. Anonymous, whoever you are, am not sure if you are reading this right, if you are reading ME right. I believe I made it very clear that this is not account of death as a detached philosophical concept but death as an experience, MY experience.

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  11. I appreciate the remarks, but I believe they are entirely misplaced.

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