Sunday, March 15, 2009
Just this issue about death. Something that I have been thinking about lately. Why? 'Cos of this book i'm reading. Let me start of a little on this book.
It's entitled "Pet Sematary". It's supposed to be "Pet Cemetery". Well, the title is such because it's about this place with such a name given to it by kids. Apparently, the kids had spelt it wrongly and so the book was given that name. Well, it's supposed to be a thriller. Rather nice as far as i have read it. Quite interesting and of course, thrilling. I won't spoil the story by telling about it here.
Somehow the story revolves around the issue of death (not surprising at all because the title speaks for itself). Interestingly, this issue, more than the thrill or storyline, has made me want to read more of the book. Questions like 'when should death be discussed with kids?", "how hard is it to cope with the death of a loved one?' and so on... It does make me think and the book also provides another perspective of answers to those questions.
Death is in no doubt a sensitive issue. However, like the book mentions, 'death is natural', just as birth is. I mean, people see birth as something normal but why not death? Isn't it a natural process? Flowers bloom, they wither and die. Even animals. Talk about a cockroach. It's born, crawls up some wall in your house, gets attacked by Shieldtox (or Baygon, whichever you use), falls to the floor, struggles and dies. The death of a pest seems normal to people but why not the death of a fellow human being? Okay, maybe not so much of a fellow human being but of their loved ones.
It is true that it is hard to leave something u love so deeply. It's just funny how some people take it so hard on themselves when someone close to heart dies. They mourn so much and blame GOD, curse GOD and attack him with million questions. But deep down they do know that none of this, NOTHING, is going to bring back the dead.
In the book there will be this conversation between a 6 year old girl and her father about the death of their neighbour. She asks her dad "Why must she die?" And the dad remains silent. She continues, " Jesus bought Lazarus back to life. He said "Lazarus come forth' and Lazarus came back to life. Why can't he do the same to her?". (I have never read the whole Bible before so i ain't pretty sure of such incident occuring). Imagine someone posts you such a question?
Questions like, "Why her?", or "Why now?", or "Why does he have to die like that?" or even "Why must people die?". Honestly, I used to ponder upon such questions, especially the last one - "Why must people die". Hmmm. A tricky question of course. Until now i haven't found the answer but i know someday i will. I know that there is sure an answer to that very question that everyone would have asked themselves sometime in their lives. I'm also very sure that the answer will be a simplistic one, something too simple to digest that it is actually the answer to such a complexed question.
And so, about Lazarus coming back to life. It brings about another question. Is there something as rebirth, reincarnation? I asked this question out of the blue to someone (she was taken aback. DUH!!!) and she replied with a confident "yes". I didn't bother asking more as I was deep in thoughts myself. Soul and flesh (body) - two totally different things, merged into one or two completely related things, divided? People say that the flesh can be destroyed not the soul. And so comes the question, "Where does the soul go?"...
This is something that I wouldn't wanna dwell into at such a young age or at this point in time of my life. Seriously, i'm sure i'll go berserk if i go any deeper into finding the answers for this question. But of course, i wouldn't just bury them and not go back... I will find the time, sometime in 50 years or so to reply to this question - not through my blog la, through my heart!
It's entitled "Pet Sematary". It's supposed to be "Pet Cemetery". Well, the title is such because it's about this place with such a name given to it by kids. Apparently, the kids had spelt it wrongly and so the book was given that name. Well, it's supposed to be a thriller. Rather nice as far as i have read it. Quite interesting and of course, thrilling. I won't spoil the story by telling about it here.
Somehow the story revolves around the issue of death (not surprising at all because the title speaks for itself). Interestingly, this issue, more than the thrill or storyline, has made me want to read more of the book. Questions like 'when should death be discussed with kids?", "how hard is it to cope with the death of a loved one?' and so on... It does make me think and the book also provides another perspective of answers to those questions.
Death is in no doubt a sensitive issue. However, like the book mentions, 'death is natural', just as birth is. I mean, people see birth as something normal but why not death? Isn't it a natural process? Flowers bloom, they wither and die. Even animals. Talk about a cockroach. It's born, crawls up some wall in your house, gets attacked by Shieldtox (or Baygon, whichever you use), falls to the floor, struggles and dies. The death of a pest seems normal to people but why not the death of a fellow human being? Okay, maybe not so much of a fellow human being but of their loved ones.
It is true that it is hard to leave something u love so deeply. It's just funny how some people take it so hard on themselves when someone close to heart dies. They mourn so much and blame GOD, curse GOD and attack him with million questions. But deep down they do know that none of this, NOTHING, is going to bring back the dead.
In the book there will be this conversation between a 6 year old girl and her father about the death of their neighbour. She asks her dad "Why must she die?" And the dad remains silent. She continues, " Jesus bought Lazarus back to life. He said "Lazarus come forth' and Lazarus came back to life. Why can't he do the same to her?". (I have never read the whole Bible before so i ain't pretty sure of such incident occuring). Imagine someone posts you such a question?
Questions like, "Why her?", or "Why now?", or "Why does he have to die like that?" or even "Why must people die?". Honestly, I used to ponder upon such questions, especially the last one - "Why must people die". Hmmm. A tricky question of course. Until now i haven't found the answer but i know someday i will. I know that there is sure an answer to that very question that everyone would have asked themselves sometime in their lives. I'm also very sure that the answer will be a simplistic one, something too simple to digest that it is actually the answer to such a complexed question.
And so, about Lazarus coming back to life. It brings about another question. Is there something as rebirth, reincarnation? I asked this question out of the blue to someone (she was taken aback. DUH!!!) and she replied with a confident "yes". I didn't bother asking more as I was deep in thoughts myself. Soul and flesh (body) - two totally different things, merged into one or two completely related things, divided? People say that the flesh can be destroyed not the soul. And so comes the question, "Where does the soul go?"...
This is something that I wouldn't wanna dwell into at such a young age or at this point in time of my life. Seriously, i'm sure i'll go berserk if i go any deeper into finding the answers for this question. But of course, i wouldn't just bury them and not go back... I will find the time, sometime in 50 years or so to reply to this question - not through my blog la, through my heart!
-Someday u'll be all alone, even without a shadow, not realising that you've got noone around you because you're no more here and i'm not there yet-
¶ 11:45 PM
