Obit: Something must be done!

Subject: Obit: Something must be done!
From: saulgoldie
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 12:40 PM

Too darn many people dying. I call for a moratorium on all dying among our extended family of musicians and loved-ones for, oh say, a long time. Just can't keep enduring it. So, if you are thinking of dying, or if you know someone who is thinking of dying any time soon, just DON'T DO IT!

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:00 PM

I agree, Saul! Others had the similar thoughts last year.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:03 PM

Okay, you talked me out of it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:06 PM

Sorry, Saul. No promises! I'll try to take your feelings into account, of course. But it is a complex issue, you understand...


A

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:19 PM

until the last few years, I 'almost' never heard about deaths among my friends, as they were mostly YOUNG and healthy. Now a lot are my age or close to it, and the statistical curve is beginning to do its thing.

I think the average age among folkies and Mudcatters is a bit higher than among...ummm...skateboarders.....so there we are.

I guess I'll ....ummm....live with it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:23 PM

Unfortunately we cannot kill death itself and obituate it. The only cure for death is living.

~S~

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Strick
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:01 PM

We could chase Death up a tree and keep him up there (old, very obscure movie reference - Death looks quite a bit like Sir Cedric Hardwicke).

Maybe he'll leave the family business to his granddaugher again. (My family adores the Death of Rats.)

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:08 PM

I happen to be a Pratchett fan as well. He needs to do another "DEATH" story. I figure a long story about a mortal trying to beat death by challenge. Out of an unsual interest death keeps him around by always coming to a draw so they have to go through many different games. I'd suggest the title "A Roll of the Bones".

As to the thread,

When God gives you an opportunity for a personal performance who are you to reject His offer?

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Mooh
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:35 PM

"...oh grave, where is thy victory?"

In the last few years I've lost two generations of my father's family plus my sister and I don't know how many friends and acquaintances. I can't go yet, there're still too many guitars to play!

Both the hardest and most emotional thing I've ever done was to hold the phone for my sister while my mother spoke her last words to her. Both were dying in seperate hospitals, but my mother survived somehow only to wish their roles were reversed. Life is really fucked up ain't it?

Saul, I could use a vacation from death too.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:45 PM

Last night, at the Alaska Folk Festival, someone sang a song with the line in it: "I'm going to live forever, or die in the trying". I like that. I also like the old joke, "I'm going to live forever. I know no one has ever done that, but hey, someone's got to go first."

I too am tired of losing those I care about. Maybe we could petition Bush to make a law against it?

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:49 PM

Hard ground to walk, Mooh-man; I feel awful just reading about it.

Never mind petitioning Bush -- there's no money in it.

A

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 03:27 PM

Who Dies?

A nephew once asked me when he was quite young
Who dies? I said, Everyone dies.
No use denying it one day you're done
Oh, everyone dies
Princes and paupers there's no one immune
And no one who'll escape their demise
So you'd better make use of each day that you're given
Oh everyone dies

Now people have pondered this time and again
Who dies? Everyone dies.
We suspect that we're more than mere mortal remains
Oh everyone dies
Wise men and prophets they've all had their say
On the nature of our afterlives
In case there's no beer there we'll have one more round
Oh everyone dies.

Your time may be short or your time may be long
Who dies? Everyone dies
But it's going to happen as sure as you're born
Oh everyone dies
Friends and relations and all we hold dear
Will one day pass to the other side
So we'd better embrace them as long as they're here
Oh everyone dies.

James Keelaghan

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 03:59 PM

Only those who have died know
That there is no dying.

Eunice Clark
ca. 1930

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 04:26 AM

The Spanish have a lot of interesting folklore about Death, usually depicted as an old woman (crone).

Robin

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: InOBU
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 08:55 AM

An old pal of mine Isaih Jones... from Florida, I think, used to say you have to lie down to die... he'd say that as we'd work rediculous hours diging a foundation ... I guess he lay down some years ago... Here's to ya pal, I hope there are no shovels in heaven, they get kinda heavy here on earth.
Cheers
Larry

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Morticia
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 12:02 PM

Amen to that.....I am very tired of people checking out before I am done with them....in fact,I'm beginning to take it personally.

Wasn't it Noel Coward who said " I am grateful these days if my friends last 'til lunchtime"? I'm beginning to know how he felt.

A very heart weary Morticia

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 02:33 PM

"The only way to stay hale & healthy until you die....is to die very suddenly"

Even with the disadvantages, I'd prefer a little advance warning, as there are SO many instructions I'll need to leave the world!

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 03:18 PM

Here's a toast to those that have crossed the bar before us, you will be missed, you will be mourned, you will be remembered, you will be loved. When it's our time, please man light and help us find our way.

Pax

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: GUEST,Shlio
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 04:47 PM

"I aim to live forever...so far so good"

C'mon, Strick, the alternative DEATHs were utter failures. Remember Mort? Another Death story would be good, or another Witches or Watch book, heck - I'd even be glad to see Rincewind again! I'm not overjoyed by thoughts of more kiddies books.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 06:56 PM

Three people in my life in the past three weeks--this IS getting rather old. So everybody cut it out, okay?

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 08:26 PM

Lucinda Matlock knew from where she was spesking:

...Degenerate sons and doughters,
Life is too strong for you,
It takes life to love life.

(from Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters

Check it out by looking into that volume---and you will not put it down.)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Strick
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 08:29 PM

"C'mon, Strick, the alternative DEATHs were utter failures. Remember Mort?"

My point exactly. Remember we're tired of Death being so effective.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Mudlark
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 10:55 PM

I do not go gently into that dark night. This is my take on losses I can't afford


Like five miles of bad road,
Like an empty parking lot at 2AM
On the wrong side of town
Like a bar fight after beer bottles
Are broken
And the jagged edges glint
Aggressively in the neon light.

This pain is mean, it fights dirty
It doesn't play by the rules
It's menacing, it's full of nasty
Promise, it shrivels the soul and
Without a thought, pierces the breast.

It chooses its time to come, in
The middle of the night, upon waking from a
Bad dream, or sneaking up behind when
Things seem to be going all right
A body blow that sends you reeling, blindsided
Demolished in a moment.

It's like a car wreck, like disaster in dreamlike
Slow motion , then the silence afterward
Sitting behind the wheel with your
Teeth in your lap, wishing, yearning
For a way to make time go backward, to
Make this terrible thing unhappen.

But there is no way to fix this, no way
To stop the bleeding, no way to uncrumple
The twisted metal, no way to put together
The broken glass. You hear the siren
In the distance but you know there's
Way more wrong here than paramedics
Can handle.   It's a whole new ballgame now,
Played in the dark.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: LadyJean
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 01:12 AM

My family was my sister in Chicago, and two cousins in Kentucky. One of the cousins died last month. She was 95, and she'd had a good life. (She was still jumping horses when she was past 60.) Her brother's alone now, and it's hit him hard. It's hit me hard too. When you don't have much family, it's tough when you lose one.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Homeless
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 10:28 PM

So, if you found out that you had only six months to live, what would you do during that time?


And why aren't you doing more of that right now?

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: croc
Date: 18 Apr 04 - 12:12 PM

Be prepared. Don't buy green bananas.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Mudlark
Date: 18 Apr 04 - 12:58 PM

Quit dieting, start smoking again (after nearly 40 years), get a housecleaner and gardener to free up my time for things I never seem to have enough time for: visiting friends, going to more concerts (no need to save money!). I'd buy another MG TD, a car from my youth that I still miss, and drive up Hwy 1 to Big Sur in it, I'd buy more expensive wine (plonk in the 1.75 liter bottles is fine, but a good 1999 red is even better), and do my best to find a good home for my dogs.

Actually, none of those things (except the last one) are all that important. I like my life just fine the way it is. I would wish for better health and a more usable body, but if I only had 6 months to live that would mean worse health, not better.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Gurney
Date: 19 Apr 04 - 07:02 AM

When I was a youngster, I thought no-one would make old bones. The Nuclear Powers rattled their sabres daily and lots of states were building B & C weapons...
To improve on 3 score and ten is a bonus.

All the same, friends of my generation and younger are 'sucking the Kumera', and I don't like it. If only we could get some first-hand information.

Subject: RE: Obit: Something must be done!
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 19 Apr 04 - 09:10 AM

I think that if any mudcatter dies without permission, they shouldn't be allowed to make anymore postings !