Tuesday, October 10, 2006

 

Memorable words

Apologies to my few loyal readers, who may be thinking, correctly, that I’m obsessing about death at the moment, but our endless discussions do have a lighter side to them. Thinking about the last words people facing death have said gave us the idea of picking some for ourselves. Clearly a bit of rehearsal’s not a bad idea if you want to leave the more profound sort that Isaac Newton left "… to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me", rather than the funny, though probably apocryphal, ones of Oscar Wilde’s “either that wallpaper goes, or I do; or avoid your golden nugget of philosophy or wit drifting into the wasteword basket because you uttered them with your last gasp to the deaf side of your bedside confidant. My loved one felt that the most apt for him would be Cecil Rhodes’s “so little done, so much to do” while my own favourite is the French Grammarian’s “I am dying, or I am about to die, either is correct.” But since I could think of nothing inspiring, witty, profound or even bittersweet of my own, perhaps I’m destined to follow my Dad and whisper the bleedin’ obvious “I’m dying”. Rob had no last treasured words but he did leave behind some nice expressions, one of which was hidying up – meaning someone had tidied up something which he now couldn’t find.

And we also pondered the sorting out of your stuff if you were given a short time to live. Because Rob never accepted he was going to die, he did nothing – even his most intimate love letters, text messages and computer files remained for anyone who cared to look at them, as well as the mountains of electronic junk, personal possessions and vast collection of music bursting from his house. So apart from obvious ones like removing old cheese sandwiches from under the bed lest family and friends see what a slut you were, we had some fun listing what the other should throw out if we hadn't had time ourselves. Anyone want a collection of 'useful pots to put things in' or a garage full of vinyl records?

Comments:
Talk to CLiff, I think he knows a guy who might be able to unload those records for you....
;)
 
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