{"id":4579,"date":"2015-03-30T07:27:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T07:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/?p=4579"},"modified":"2015-03-31T08:33:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T08:33:06","slug":"sin-series-death-when-i-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/2015\/03\/30\/sin-series-death-when-i-die\/","title":{"rendered":"SIN series &#8211; Death: When I die&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Skeptic Ink Network are running a little series on death, so keep your eyes peeled for some articles across the network from a few contributors (see our previous series on <a title=\"Don\u2019t (Moral) Panic!!!\" href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/2014\/09\/27\/dont-moral-panic\/\">moral panics<\/a>). To start the ball rolling, here is something that I have to offer on the subject:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I&#8217;m hopefully not going anywhere soon, but if I do, I would like to be prepared. Sometimes death just pops up and hits you, leaving you thinking, &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t ready for that!&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was listening to a great track by a group called James called\u00a0<em>Moving On\u00a0<\/em>off of their Le Petit Mort album. It has a truly beautiful video which can be seen below. The song details the death of singer Tim Booth&#8217;s mother in hospital, which he was there for and was a sort of lovely and emotional experience for him, as well as being obviously sad. Well worth listening to and watching.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"James - Moving On\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aWPgJkOdUZU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I would like it played at my funeral.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I got to thinking about summing up how I feel about death, and particularly my death. So I tried, and perhaps succeeded, perhaps not (you will be the judge of that, for sure), in writing a poem of sorts to do justice to the ideas. See what you think and, well, be honest&#8230; In the context of performance poetry, the rhyming is unconventional, profiting form being read aloud. You know, maybe at a funeral&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0(It&#8217;s a draft and will no doubt profit from further fine-tuning)<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Legacy of Life<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve packed my stuff and left the house,<\/p>\n<p>the lights are off, the doors are locked;<\/p>\n<p>And the key? It&#8217;s not under that little rock, any more.<\/p>\n<p>I ain&#8217;t coming back;<\/p>\n<p>I never had the knack<\/p>\n<p>for that supernatural crap.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whether I&#8217;d had enough<\/p>\n<p>before the tap root of my tree of life&#8217;s sap ran dry&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Who knows?<\/p>\n<p>What I ask is that you use my bricks, sticks and hay<\/p>\n<p>to build something, starting today:<\/p>\n<p>anything that can grow and foster hope,<\/p>\n<p>anything to make this space we live in better able to cope;<\/p>\n<p>a finer\u00a0place.<\/p>\n<p>No one likes to leave without a trace, after all,<\/p>\n<p>so make this useful, embrace life and face it head on.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it be taking some words I&#8217;ve written or said,<\/p>\n<p>putting them to good use, making a pledge<\/p>\n<p>or whether it be paying it forward,<\/p>\n<p>not just empty words, but actions<\/p>\n<p>(they speak louder, haven&#8217;t you heard?).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So how do you do this good?<\/p>\n<p>you ask, spurred on, stirred.<\/p>\n<p>Do three great\u00a0kind\u00a0things to people around you<\/p>\n<p>a stranger, preferably, as a rule of thumb<\/p>\n<p>so it becomes about the act and not<\/p>\n<p>a bass drum announcing what you&#8217;ve done.<\/p>\n<p>Keep schtum, and ask they follow it on,<\/p>\n<p>and on and on &#8211; three times, not one.<\/p>\n<p>We need to break the sad, the mad, the bad<\/p>\n<p>and make this society\u00a0the best we&#8217;ve ever had.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I know I&#8217;m just a cog in this mighty world,<\/p>\n<p>this magnificent ticking machine,<\/p>\n<p>a mechanism only partly seen<\/p>\n<p>by our keen, marvelling eyes,<\/p>\n<p>but together we can realise the opportunity we all carry<\/p>\n<p>to build bridges between the haves and the have-nots.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t tarry, leave here and spot that chance to mine the quarry<\/p>\n<p>for the riches of goodness:<\/p>\n<p>hey, it ain&#8217;t easy, but just act morally.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be sorry, pick yourself up and do better<\/p>\n<p>be better.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t just seek for glory<\/p>\n<p>(take it from me, you get boring).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now\u00a0I&#8217;ve played my part in the lives<\/p>\n<p>of my wonderful family who survive me<\/p>\n<p>who would drive me<\/p>\n<p>day upon day in their own different ways<\/p>\n<p>and whose love is second to none.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry, I won&#8217;t bore you; for them I&#8217;ve got another\u00a0one of these-<\/p>\n<p>suffice it to say that I hope we have moulded<\/p>\n<p>a pair of boys, emboldened to challenge<\/p>\n<p>and fight for what is right<\/p>\n<p>and use the might of their minds<\/p>\n<p>to carve out lives that remind others<\/p>\n<p>of what possibilities can lead to:<\/p>\n<p>strong and independent and finding their way through<\/p>\n<p>life to knowing who they are, lit by the resplendent light<\/p>\n<p>of knowledge and our love.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;ve done what I&#8217;ve done,<\/p>\n<p>did some shit, had some fun.<\/p>\n<p>Look, it&#8217;s there, on the map:<\/p>\n<p>my journey laid out, unwavering, but I never felt trapped.<\/p>\n<p><em>Perhaps<\/em>\u00a0there were things I could have done more of,<\/p>\n<p>less of,<\/p>\n<p>been more attentive to, or<\/p>\n<p>not made a mess of&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>no&#8230;\u00a0<em>for sure<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>No regrets, I don&#8217;t like to keep the score.<\/p>\n<p>As with you all, I&#8217;ve opened up doors,<\/p>\n<p>played my part in the intricate universal jigsaw.<\/p>\n<p>Yada yada yada, OK, stop that yawn.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the point of what I am saying, of this plea?<\/p>\n<p>I know that whatever is me<\/p>\n<p>will die with your memories, which will fade, you&#8217;ll see.<\/p>\n<p>I get it, that&#8217;s life, or death as may be.<\/p>\n<p>In these words, and others, I live for just a little time<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps a touch more than those on your lips<\/p>\n<p>This is my legacy: your memories, my writing,<\/p>\n<p>this rhyme.<\/p>\n<p>To do nothing now, after reading this,<\/p>\n<p>well, that&#8217;s a moral crime.<\/p>\n<p>Do better, be better,<\/p>\n<p>remember this open letter<\/p>\n<p>pleading for you to climb,<\/p>\n<p>pulling humanity with you, though it&#8217;s no\u00a0burden,<\/p>\n<p>it&#8217;s a purpose, your purpose in life&#8217;s crazy circus,<\/p>\n<p>daring to go on, together to mighty heights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Is humanity the apex, the paragon of virtue,<\/p>\n<p>an evolved organism of wonder, of truth-seeking<\/p>\n<p>that nothing else is equal to?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know, to find that out<\/p>\n<p>you might need a judicial review,<\/p>\n<p>because it could be construed to be untrue<\/p>\n<p>that humanity&#8217;s all that and a bag of chips right now.<\/p>\n<p>Who cares what&#8217;s now, it&#8217;s already been and gone<\/p>\n<p>All that matters is the course you&#8217;re on,<\/p>\n<p>where you&#8217;re going, what goal you&#8217;re set upon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let this be the domino that knocks yours;<\/p>\n<p>rocks your\u00a0foundation, then sets out the floor<\/p>\n<p>on which to build\u00a0your bricks, sticks and hay<\/p>\n<p>that create your edifice of betterment all the way<\/p>\n<p>to somewhere new, somewhere great<\/p>\n<p>of harmony with this diverse world of man and beast<\/p>\n<p>which of late seems so perilous, but not yet deceased.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re a part of your fate, and my final thing to state<\/p>\n<p>is that you own it; your life is for you to author:<\/p>\n<p>think before you write<\/p>\n<p>do it with a good pen, with clarity, and share your ink<\/p>\n<p>because you&#8217;ll blink<\/p>\n<p>and it&#8217;ll be gone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Skeptic Ink Network are running a little series on death, so keep your eyes peeled for some articles across the network from a few contributors (see our previous series on moral panics). To start the ball rolling, here is something that I have to offer on the subject:<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m hopefully not going anywhere soon, but if I do, I would like to be prepared. Sometimes death just pops up and hits you, leaving you thinking, &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t ready for that!&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[256,1595,1054,893],"tags":[39,1339,1135],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism-2","category-death","category-featured","category-humanism-2","tag-atheism","tag-death","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}