Postcards from the Funny Farm

Sounds morbid huh? Not to me. I see it as a positive, self-improvement mantra.  Most people have seen a dead person like a grandparent or friend in a casket at a funeral. We know they don’t look real. I remember my grandfathers both looked wax. It is not their appearance that hits me the hardest it is the realization that they are not animated anymore. Some might even argue (and have) that it is because their soul has left the body. Whatever your explanation, it is undeniable that dead bodies look vastly different than living ones. I think you reach a plateau with the fear of death and you accept that everyone of us will indeed die. At that realistic point you can start to view people you encounter as really just temporarily alive.

You can ensure your words mean more because anyone you encounter, be it a boss or friend, will one day die. This can help with being direct, saying what’s most important only, and attempting to make a long lasting influence as much as possible. Of course it is first and foremost helpful in living a qualty life to accept that you yourself are only “temporarily alive.” This possibly morbid but certainly full-of-impact phrase has the power to change your life for the better. laptop memory is affordable, but when our minds get to a certain age … all we can do is look back. Make the most of the time right now.

How might you view certain people around you differently with this mindset?

Driving home from the ball game tonight my wife and I nearly hit a 10 year old kid on his bike. He decided he would play chicken with our multi-ton minivan. Needless to say we honked. What the hell is happening with the youth of today? I know they have been saying that forever but Sarah and I see it up close and personal every day we teach. A place it is getting particularly scary is in middle and high school. But back to my story … I flipped the car around much to my wife’s dismay since the babies were both crabby and crying since we left the game. I chased the kid into a culdesac and gave him my 2 cents worth on his little game. He said sorry and his middle school aged friends did their “chill out dude” thing (oh how I hear that in my sleep). I told him I was a teacher and if one of my students did that not only would I tell their parents but I would tell the police. I am sure they all had a good laugh at the bald guy who pulled over to blabber something. Nonetheless, that kid could die that way. I have reached down to get something and nearly hit the curb before, what if that was a kid? I was pretty upset about it.

My point of this short diary entry is not to disparage youth. It is the most beautiful time of our humanity in many ways. But we all need to be making u-turns and saying hello to the death rockers we pass in the mall et al. I just wanted to put that out to the blogosphere. What do you think about being the hope our youth needs?

No, I am not referring to that new TV show. I’m referring to actual burial policy. Have you declared to your loved ones what you’d prefer? I’ve thought about this recently, probably since my grandpa recently passed, about what would happen to me if I died unexpectedly. I’m sure I probably need to make a will, that’s the obvious solution to the problem. But after that, what should I do with my body after I’m gone? I’ve always liked the idea of cremation because it keeps the worms out of the deal (sorry to be so rank). Then again, it’s nice to think that my loved ones could look upon me once more before they put me in the ground. Then again, donating my body to science seems a humatiarian act. At this point, I am opting for cremation but I am open to other points of view. Do me a favor and participate in my poll, I’d like to know what people out there prefer: