I did make one earlier, which you can read here. Guess it needs more additions. 😉 And wondering when even the first one will be crossed out 😦
Dust in the Wind
Reply
Tag Archives: death
Paying tribute to the Legend
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash.
Be water, my friend.” ― Bruce Lee
This is one of my most favourite lines said by the aforementioned legend, who died 40 years ago today. Although he passed on from this world much before I was born, throughout my life he inspired me to be myself and continues to do so. Some of his very simple words brings me to tears at times, it’s the way he lived that tells his tale.
“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
He himself was the very example of his words, as his presence lives in the hearts of millions. Thank you shīfu for your teachings.
A tribute shared by Shannon via the official site‘s newsletter and facebook page:
Not a mere mortal
Speaking of longevity, this came to my mind. A recent gift I received in the Arbitrary exchange 2013 at redditgifts. One of the many greatest Batman stories there is.
My Eulogy for Myself
Writing my eulogy. This is a whole new level of talking to myself and about myself, and here both of them put together! Quite naturally I don’t know where on earth (?) I’ll be when I kick the bucket, I have this paradoxical feeling of ‘worrying’ of dying alone, and at the same time much preferring wanting that. So here it goes, sort of:
The beast is no more, and has gone to ride beyond this world, if such a thing exists that is. Mere words won’t do justice to him, or more honestly there are no words for that matter. I would have like to have called him my friend, but I doubt anyone of us could honestly say so. He wasn’t the greatest out there, nor the most attractive, but what made him special was he was always himself and always tried to be true to himself and ones around him. He was\ the bravest, and craziest person I ever knew. I wonder what all he managed to accomplish before he kicked the bucket, but I sincerely hope he was personally satisfied in the end, which he wasn’t at all at any given time. He would have not have believed someone would say this as he was always the lone-wolf, but in all sincerity I will miss that son of a gun. I hope he found some measure of peace in the end.
Well that would be about it, although as I already mentioned above, I would rather have and most likely will as I think now that I’ll be on my own. The idea of laying dead on the bed with hundreds (number depends on how famous/rich you are) around you mourning (depends, many of which is just obligatory) doesn’t much appeal to me. If I have one wish, someone play a Linkin Park song on my passing, or a good tune. Well I won’t be hearing that when I kick the bucket, so that won’t matter either way.
Live and die on this day
Looking at today’s daily prompt, I find it quite astounding that just in one of my previous posts I had wrote pertaining to survival, which inspired me to give this title and this being a continuation of sorts. So after reading R v Dudley and Stephens I like most have mixed feelings about this.
So firstly, long story short, if you didn’t bother reading the wiki article which is still small, four crewmen of an English yacht, the Mignonette, who were cast away in a storm some 1,600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, were stranded in a life boat. They were Tom Dudley, the captain; Edwin Stephens; Edmund Brooks; and Richard Parker, the cabin boy. Parker was 17 years old and an inexperienced seaman. After a weeks of survival with no food or water, facing a storm, fighting a shark and resorting to drink their own urine for surviving. Parker fell ill and subsequently in coma due to a combination of famine and drinking sea water. After several discussions of sacrificing one so that the other three may live, Dudley with the aid of Stephens killed Parker (killing him before his natural death would make it possible for them to drink his blood) and the three lived on eating his flesh. They were rescued four days later.
After their rescue, this sparked quite a controversy among law makers, seamen, and the public, which developed a crucial ruling on necessity on modern law. The main question however here: Is what Dudley did defensible?
This is not a simple yes or no answerable question, it has certain multiple sides to it. The question is not about whether what he did was right or wrong, but more of necessity and subsequently survival. Firstly Dudley was the captain, and wasn’t it that the captain goes down with the ship? He was the one who ultimately decided that one down is better than four. Was it justified? Not necessarily. Was it practical? Yes. In that situation that was the only practical thing which could have been done, the other option was to wait it out with the possibility of dying. And the instinct of survival is in all living creatures. Who wants to die? (unless you life is a complete mess and you think of kill yourself)
What I find very frustrating was the fact that the reason that Dudley and Stephens were family men so ‘their lives were more important’. What makes their lives more important than the other(s)? And wasn’t the Custom of the Sea that the captain goes down with the ship?
Coming to me, What would I have done? Well I’m not in that situation so I can’t answer honestly. But if it would arise, then I would take the practical route as always and would have gone that course just like them. And if I were in the place of Parker, I would prefer a swift death than suffering (saying purely in such a context only). I’m not going to see how I’m feasted upon after I’m dead right? But in all reality, I would honestly prefer to live it out, and die fighting for survival, if there was any hope of no one getting killed. But again, we can’t say for certain without being the situation itself, and while each life is valuable, who decides that? Like I said in my previous post, live and die on this day.
And lastly, I again found it bit funny that the recent very hit and a moving movie on survival, Life of Pi, the tiger’s name is also Richard Parker. And it has the exact same context as here, you would have realized that if you have seen it, if not I recommend that you do. Looking at my posts, I should perhaps recommend a movie/book in each of my posts now right?
The Nameless One 