It feels kind of odd that it is halloween and yesterday was our Prime Minister's mother's funeral. Today a colleague buried her father, and tomorrow another colleague buries her mother.
Just too much death out and about at the moment!
But death is something that simply cannot be avoided, it is the one truly inevitable thing in life.
I went to the funeral today, and really there are two things that have given me food for thought.
The first was it turns out I work in a place where it is not practice to go to the funerals of colleagues family. This is nothing I have given a great deal of thought to, but it seems to me quite natural. Specially when it comes to colleagues one works closely with. Anyway, I went, and have apologised to the colleague whose mother is being buried tomorrow, as two in a row is just too much.
The other was that although I never met my colleague's father, I had heard a bit about him, as he was a pioneer in the field of social anthropology/ethnography here in Norway. It was a lovely service, what we would call a "dignified send off". One thing which was said about him, which I would love to be said about me too when the time comes: everyone is important.
When it comes to what others may say about you at your funeral, I can think of nothing I would like more than that something like that be said about me.
It helps not to be afraid of death, but the challenge is how the inevitability of dying inspires one's living, wouldn't you say?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Strike while the iron is hot
See this is what I think I am learning, well finally at any rate. Write even short posts while the idea and/thought is fresh in your mind.
So here is one: a great new blog from Rachel Bertsche, author of "MWF seeking BFF". It is really what I learnt from her book to - everyone is waiting for someone else to take the initiative. Some can afford to wait, and others (of us) simply cannot.
Friendship has always been an obsession of mine, I have just never felt satisfied in that area of my life. What I am realising is that that is probably a huge part of the problem: obsessing over it. Well at least partly. In any rate, enjoy the blog (not mine, silly, follow the link to Rachel Bertsche's)!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Follow up to "After the Party"
Wow! How kul - a comment!! Now THAT is inspiring :)
Yes, in case you're wondering have just spotted a comment, made two months ago to my posting after I read Andrew Feinstein's "After the party". Which in turn reminded me that as a follow up it is worth noting that subsequently the Constitutional court in South Africa has ruled that the appointment of Menzi Simelane to the position of head of the National Prosecuting Agency (?) was not rational. Okay, that may seem absurd, but that is the long and the short of it.
It gives one hope really, although things are more challenging than ever. Especially as last week the Economist had South Africa on its front page and it was depressing reading. What also threw me for a loop was not one but two things I read subsequently. In the one, an article from the Daily Maverick, where the writer argues that the Economist is giving into a stereotypical view of Africa as hopeless. In the other, a letter on facebook, the writer lambasted expats for contributing to the negative of South Africa overseas (which I do agree with!). On the other hand, I do fear that both of the writers are also being a bit naive about the challenges which South Africa is facing at the moment.
However, I have to say that it fills me with some pleasure that in both cases the writers are white. Far too many white South Africans are precisely so negative about South Africa that I actively make sure the same could never be said of me. That said I will not gloss over the challenges. That would be disloyal to what was achieved when Apartheid was overthrown.
Now this is the type of musing which I may in future put on my new blog thinks&writes.
Yes, in case you're wondering have just spotted a comment, made two months ago to my posting after I read Andrew Feinstein's "After the party". Which in turn reminded me that as a follow up it is worth noting that subsequently the Constitutional court in South Africa has ruled that the appointment of Menzi Simelane to the position of head of the National Prosecuting Agency (?) was not rational. Okay, that may seem absurd, but that is the long and the short of it.
It gives one hope really, although things are more challenging than ever. Especially as last week the Economist had South Africa on its front page and it was depressing reading. What also threw me for a loop was not one but two things I read subsequently. In the one, an article from the Daily Maverick, where the writer argues that the Economist is giving into a stereotypical view of Africa as hopeless. In the other, a letter on facebook, the writer lambasted expats for contributing to the negative of South Africa overseas (which I do agree with!). On the other hand, I do fear that both of the writers are also being a bit naive about the challenges which South Africa is facing at the moment.
However, I have to say that it fills me with some pleasure that in both cases the writers are white. Far too many white South Africans are precisely so negative about South Africa that I actively make sure the same could never be said of me. That said I will not gloss over the challenges. That would be disloyal to what was achieved when Apartheid was overthrown.
Now this is the type of musing which I may in future put on my new blog thinks&writes.
Just because
Check out my new blog - readsandthinks.blogspot.com
Don't ask me why I have "started again" (it may very well mean the death knell of this one).
Fresh starts when one is starting with new resolve is somehow a good thing, no? Well time will tell.
In the mean time, I did it "just because" :)
Don't ask me why I have "started again" (it may very well mean the death knell of this one).
Fresh starts when one is starting with new resolve is somehow a good thing, no? Well time will tell.
In the mean time, I did it "just because" :)
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