"Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little. Make use of time while it is present with you. It depends upon your will, and not upon the number of days, to have a sufficient length of life. Is it possible you can imagine never to arrive at the place towards which you are continually going? and yet there is no journey but hath its end. And, if company will make it more pleasant or more easy to you, does not all the world go the self-same way?I believe, in truth, that it is those terrible ceremonies and preparations wherewith we set it out, that more terrify us than the thing itself; a new, quite contrary way of living; the cries of mothers, wives, and children; the visits of astounded and afflicted friends; a dark room, set round with burning tapers; in sum, nothing but ghostliness and horror round about us; we seem dead and buried already. Children are afraid even of those they are best acquainted with, when disguised in a visor; and so 'tis with us; the visor must be removed as well from things as from persons, that being taken away, we shall find nothing underneath but the very same death that a mean servant or a poor chambermaid died a day or two ago, without any manner of apprehension. Happy is the death that deprives us of leisure for preparing such ceremonials."
Credit: essays of Michel de Montaigne.
If I had wanted a change, I will be the change. How long and how hard does it take to change a tradition so deep set in a culture? I want death to be a joyous occasion. Just like a celebrity's death is remembered by portraying one's life works, wouldn't it have been a lot more memorable and sentimental to celebrate the death of one? The day our life ends is the day it draws a full stop and completes the beautiful journey that we have been through. We end it off with a blast, we end if off leaving a legacy. Will we be able to achieve that one day?
I know I want to.
7 comments:
You sound like you might be interested in the philosophy of humanism. Check it out. I think the NUS Central Lib and Science Lib has some introductory texts on the subject.
Hi, may I know who you are?
I have very random reads now and then. Thanks for the intro!
Oh you don't know me. I came across your blog some years ago using the "next blog" function on blogger, and visit it occasionally.
Reading's fun. The NUS libraries have excellent collections.
some years ago? and you have been reading my blog occasionally for all these years??
that's a pretty impressive feat. following a total random stranger's blog.
and i suppose you are either a current of graduated student of NUS?
Yea, I was reading it before the address became "guailangirl". It was quite a different blog from others I came across while randomly surfing back then as it was written in proper sentences.
All along your posts reflected an authentic person behind them and not some manufactured persona. Sometimes, they sounded sad but they were never cynical, and always hopeful. It's very readable.
And yes, I've graduated from NUS a year back.
Wow, I'm thoroughly honoured by your compliments.
What faculty were you previously from?
The law fac at the BTC.
It's good to spend some time thinking all by yourself. Everyone needs to discover the philosophy he's living by.
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