Always enjoy your musings. As a 78 year old having heard/read a good sample (albeit minuscule by comparison) of these things I suggest most obits are great examples of “revisionist history”. Or if thats too strong, at least gross embellishment. I am not terribly bothered by this. Just another example of our need for ego gratification even if from ‘beyond the grave’. Have you ever known someone who wrote their own obituary? Even not while facing an imminently uncertain future? Have you ever sat in an audience listening to someone you know well being eulogized and thought “who are they talking about?” As your curmudgeonly friend is being lionized? Oh well. Carpe diem! HNY to all!
How we are remembered counts for nothing. It is an illusion like chasing a ghost. We can never truly know the inner workings of a person and therefore the memory they want to present may be quite false. Has anyone ever read a bad obit?
I’d argue that how we are remembered has almost nothing to do with our obituary and pretty much everything to do with how we lived. In the cases of those I’ve lost it counts for everything. My dad showed me by his actions how to live and even amazingly how to die. His was certainly a life worth remembering and I do. Pretty much every day. Frankly though I couldn’t even begin to tell you what his obituary said.
Oh yeah and I’m SO very glad we got our National Parks passes before the beautiful natural scenery that has been on them for many years was covered by the egomaniac’s picture.
My obit and my hobby’s will be short, if we even have one. Name, date of birth and death. No services. No photo, no flowery praise, no survived by. Anyone who knew us knows who we were and what we did, the obits are for strangers reading the paper.
The US is definitely getting what they voted for.
Sad to lose another voice from WW2. Soon there will be no one who remembers the hardships. And I live on an Island by choice but don’t think I would want to be stranded here. They say we have enough supplies for three days, or something like that. After that, it’s everyone for themselves. Still remember the panic of COVID, grocery stores were empty. But I can tell you, we now have plenty of toilet paper on hand!
For some reason, maybe because I fell in love with the show and the music, I thought of this song from HAMILTON when I read your newsletter subject today. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Always enjoy your musings. As a 78 year old having heard/read a good sample (albeit minuscule by comparison) of these things I suggest most obits are great examples of “revisionist history”. Or if thats too strong, at least gross embellishment. I am not terribly bothered by this. Just another example of our need for ego gratification even if from ‘beyond the grave’. Have you ever known someone who wrote their own obituary? Even not while facing an imminently uncertain future? Have you ever sat in an audience listening to someone you know well being eulogized and thought “who are they talking about?” As your curmudgeonly friend is being lionized? Oh well. Carpe diem! HNY to all!
How we are remembered counts for nothing. It is an illusion like chasing a ghost. We can never truly know the inner workings of a person and therefore the memory they want to present may be quite false. Has anyone ever read a bad obit?
I’d argue that how we are remembered has almost nothing to do with our obituary and pretty much everything to do with how we lived. In the cases of those I’ve lost it counts for everything. My dad showed me by his actions how to live and even amazingly how to die. His was certainly a life worth remembering and I do. Pretty much every day. Frankly though I couldn’t even begin to tell you what his obituary said.
Oh yeah and I’m SO very glad we got our National Parks passes before the beautiful natural scenery that has been on them for many years was covered by the egomaniac’s picture.
YES!!!! He has the id of a toddler…
My obit and my hobby’s will be short, if we even have one. Name, date of birth and death. No services. No photo, no flowery praise, no survived by. Anyone who knew us knows who we were and what we did, the obits are for strangers reading the paper.
The US is definitely getting what they voted for.
Sad to lose another voice from WW2. Soon there will be no one who remembers the hardships. And I live on an Island by choice but don’t think I would want to be stranded here. They say we have enough supplies for three days, or something like that. After that, it’s everyone for themselves. Still remember the panic of COVID, grocery stores were empty. But I can tell you, we now have plenty of toilet paper on hand!
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/hamilton-hamilton-hamilton/pl.u-rVkuzzW0r
For some reason, maybe because I fell in love with the show and the music, I thought of this song from HAMILTON when I read your newsletter subject today. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Or The Who Won’t Get Fooled Again
New boss
Same as the old boss