The Meaning of Body Changes, Life and Death: What Would you Want your Epitaph to Say?
At the present time, I am reading a wonderful book, Everyman, by one of my favorite authors, Phillip Roth. This book is told from the voice of an un-named man who is watching his own funeral. Consequently, he traces his life from his own experiences as a sickly child who bears witness to his own body deteriorating, with the passage of time, and his eventual death at the age of 70. The book begins at the narrator's own funeral, and he chronicles his life through his achievements, his three marriages, the birth of his children, and his own professional and personal accomplishments up into his own old age, which he observes by his contemporaries beginning to become ill and some of them eventually die. This slim novel is not small, and the impact of watching one's own 'ordinary' life unfold is very powerful, at least from the pen and prose of Roth.
Each one of us has experienced change in the form of illness, and the natural deterioration of our own bodies is an inevitable consequence for us all. Moreover, many of us have gone through the pain of watching a loved one around us die, either figuratively or actually (such as an illness which renders a person to be someone other than he/she used to be, or death.)
I bring up this subject because over this past week, it has made me think about how our own bodies change, and the impact that this has on those around us as well. Some of us fight and resist change and insist upon hanging on to a dream or an idea of a person as he/she used to be. Is it not often the case that as we watch someone whom we love or care about deeply become ill or suffer, that at times, we too may die in the process as well? Are we not all ordinary individuals having extraordinary experiences?
Here is the question of the day: At the end of the day, how do we decide who we are? How do we judge ourselves, and when, and by what achievements (or lack thereof) do we leave our imprint on those around us? Do we measure ourselves by our achievements only? Do each of us stop to live the very best life we can, or do we keep waiting for the miracle around us to happen? Does age become our teacher or our own enemy? If you had to write your epitaph, what would you want it to say and why?
Thank you for your minds.
Each one of us has experienced change in the form of illness, and the natural deterioration of our own bodies is an inevitable consequence for us all. Moreover, many of us have gone through the pain of watching a loved one around us die, either figuratively or actually (such as an illness which renders a person to be someone other than he/she used to be, or death.)
I bring up this subject because over this past week, it has made me think about how our own bodies change, and the impact that this has on those around us as well. Some of us fight and resist change and insist upon hanging on to a dream or an idea of a person as he/she used to be. Is it not often the case that as we watch someone whom we love or care about deeply become ill or suffer, that at times, we too may die in the process as well? Are we not all ordinary individuals having extraordinary experiences?
Here is the question of the day: At the end of the day, how do we decide who we are? How do we judge ourselves, and when, and by what achievements (or lack thereof) do we leave our imprint on those around us? Do we measure ourselves by our achievements only? Do each of us stop to live the very best life we can, or do we keep waiting for the miracle around us to happen? Does age become our teacher or our own enemy? If you had to write your epitaph, what would you want it to say and why?
Thank you for your minds.
11 Comments:
Really, if it's too soon, I would love "Late Again" on the stone.
Truthfully, I'de rather go down in a wooden box (no metal or concrete as per state code) and after a few years, feed the worms.
Then again, I have a friend (blogger) who could use some help with her first bar mitvah for her son. Her name is Kate, and her site is http://someoneelseshoroscope.blogspot.com/
Hmmmm. Wonder if yy thinks it's OK fer a dude like me t'even ask a proper Jew about this?
Who cares? She could use the help.
That's what counts.
Here lies Giacomo LaScala... and why not?
...or the standard, "My body lies, but still I roam"
I would like my epitaph to be:
"If all the horses were the same, it wouldn't be a race."
If it would fit onto a tombstone, then I would also put Wordsworth's poem, "Tintern Abbey" on it....the joy and peaceful of nature, and the sublime pleasure we can derive from the remembrance of our days in the sun.
WW
First of all I think it would be nice to make it through all phases of life before dying. I think we have much learning to do from each phase of life.
I think I would like "Wife, mother, friend. She loved her family."
If I had an epitaph, it should say, "This girl had fun."
Very deep thinking as usual.
I think that age should be a teacher.
It is unfortunate that many young people scorn the elderly when there’s so much wisdom to learn, life's lesson that cannot be found in books.
Good to see you all thinking!
The only reason I bring this issue up is because Roth's book made me think, not just about what happens to our bodies as we age, but what imprint we leave on the world, and how it is felt by those around us, through our children, spouses, loved ones and friends.
DM, you can order Roth's book on Amazon.com. We are going on a guided tour when we get to Israel, and the time we are not spent there, I (at least) will be shopping so that I can help the economy and going to places to donate money.
I think deciding who we are is a lifertime acheivement. That's the beauty of being human. We don't have to settle for the person we are if we don't like it. We can change and grow. I would want people to say that I never stopped learning. I want to teach my children to persue knowledge constantly. But, if we do that, we're always changing and growing. I don't think we are ever completely us. It's a constant search.
"Oh, I remember him, he was a nice guy."
I would want my epitaph to be "she rose beyond herself"
At our best we seem to have the capacity to rise beyond our own petty prejudices and ambitions to do something that will positively impact the generations. It is a rare and precious thing and I hope that in some small way I will be able to do so some day
Dear Barbara,
I remember that boycott on grapes from my childhood.
The Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, mostly Filipino, started the Delano Grape Strike in 1965.
Soon after the strike started, Cesar Chavez and his group, National Farmworkers Association, mostly Hispanic, joined in.
The two groups merged and became the United Farm Workers of America. And they convinced the consumers to boycott table grapes.
Amazingly, their demand was to be paid minimum wage.
But they did not come to a collective agreement until 1970. It took five years.
That was a successful boycott. The beef boycott around the sametime was also successful.
But a successful boycott takes mass numbers of consumers and/or laborers joining in.
I feel the same way about Wal-Mart as two of your other commentors....but what would it take to successfully boycott Wal-Mart? They are so huge, they seem to have a lock on the market.
Other than that, I am a vegetarian... one reason being my statement against the gluttony of many Americans. So that is my own personal boycott.
WW
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