As the year comes to an end we can look forward to the Holidays.. The major ones are, of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are others including the one to celebrate the ending of the old and the beginning of the new.
These year-end celebrations seem logical milestones in the cycles of the years that our planet makes. It is somewhat ironical that there is not this confluence of celebration in our individual lives. Perhaps that is because there is not a readily apparent cycle to the ending of a life.
It is true that many religions teach some version of a cycle to an individual’s life. Many of those versions teach of going to a better place. Some have a version of naughty or nice destinations depending of what has transpired in the individual life. Some teach of a restart or try over till one gets it right according to that belief. And some just believe there is an end and nothing more.
Hopefully, those that teach a version of going to higher planes are correct. We all are aware of the saying that ‘Getting old is not for Sissies.’ This is probably because all of us notice a deterioration of some, if not many, of the aspects of our life as we age.
I, for instance, have lost enough of my sight that I am no longer able to drive. An injury to my left leg has deteriorated to the point that my preference is to sit rather than move about. When I do move, a cane become more and more preferable, The loss of hearing makes communication difficult. Oh, if only folks would mumble less.
Some of the miracles of technology are DVR’s for TV which allows skipping through loud commercials, especially those for all those pills or injections that are supposed to cure the problems of age. I am pleased with E-readers that make the font big enough so these tired old eyes can still read. The fact is that here in the middle of my eighth decade there is a noticeable fade of exuberance.
Many of my relatives, acquaintances and erstwhile friends have “passed” to where I know not, but know where I hope they have gone. All my life I have wondered why those rituals called funerals are so often sad rather than joyous instead of celebrations like our traditional year-end ones like Thanksgiving or Christmas or even New Year’s Eve.
That celebratory type of transition of the yearly cycle seems to be more appropriate to those who believe in a “better place” than the sadness of a funeral.
These more of less melancholy thoughts are the results of the coming year end celebrations, the recent loss of respected friends, reflections on past joys and losses. They also include my own aches, pains as they have reduced my year end happiness.
So, I apologize and wish you a very happy rest of this year’s celebration.
