The Irony of Being Dead

Most of you get it what I really mean from the title itself, I guess.  Have you ever figured it out every time you pay visit to a wake of somebody you knew? It is a given fact that all of us have the same exact destination and we are already on our journey…to Death presently.  What we just do not know is that how long we are taking this trip.

We are most of the time shaken by the truth due to a sudden death of somebody we knew, be it an accident or heart attack. Because for all we know, we could be the next. But what I am trying to point here is when death is already there and it happened inevitably to a person we knew, we notice that we have to be by that dead loved one urgently. Of course, am I right? Traditionally, it is.

I noticed why it happened all the time, when a person is dead, most of his/her friends and colleagues would rush to see his/her lifeless body? For what? Have you ever think that there were many times when these dead people called you for help and companionship when they were still alive? For sure, many times, you made excuses and wasn’t able to make up for their request. If I’m right, what drives up in mind of these people who hurry themselves up with surging emotion to get to see the event how does this certain person died? Is it really a sympathy or curiosity? You can figure out the difference when dead people invited you during their birthdays and you did not come and being at their wake when they don’t even invite you and you cannot even see how they appreciate your presence.

I also don’t get it why it is the only point in time our friends and relatives would have a complete presence for us. Most of the time, people we do want to see for a long time would only show up when we are dead. Why not during birthdays? Why not on our wedding day?Why not every time if possibly they can? What’s there to look forward to when we cannot mingle with them when it is our own wake already. Is it their consolation for us to say, “Better late than Never”?. A way of telling dead people, “At least I’ve showed up before you gone six feet under”? Whatever it is, it is already late, every thing’s late when people die and you cannot change the recent emotion of the dead before he dies. Isn’t it funny that you receive beautiful flowers for the first time when you’re dead?, soldiers given honorary tribute and grand salute during funerals but not during their life?, poor people riding in vintage/luxury funeral vehicle but haven’t experienced it when they were still alive?

If there’s some ways we can lessen such traditional useless path. I hope we can do something about it in our own simple way. Our presence is more impotant for our loved ones who are still living. We may sometimes taking them for granted but let us find thousand ways to make it up to them before it’s too late. If we in our family can make a possible reunion at times, let’s do it.  Not only during wakes. Bottomline, let us treat each other nicely as if it is always our last day and making the most of our time with God as a center of our life.