Death

 

After "Life" comes "Death".

And so it is in this succession of blogposts.

I remember lying in bed one night when I was seven or eight years old. Suddenly, I was overtaken  by a very disturbing thought. What would my life be like if my mother and father died? They seemed so everlasting  but I realised that their deaths were eminently possible. They could disappear. And then where would I be? There were tears on my pillow that night. After that I never quite looked at my parents in the same certain way as I had before.

What is Death? Through the centuries, we have had to listen to the spouted beliefs of religious people. We have heard about Heaven and angels, Paradise and everlasting life. Those wicked young men who hijacked the four planes on September 11th 2001 were emboldened by the belief that they were securing their places in their imagined Islamic heaven. And nuns in convents surely believe that through their self-denial and Christian devotion they will secure their places in heaven.

Those of us who are atheists, agnostics or non-believers have tended to keep our thoughts about Death under wraps - perhaps reluctant to cause offence. But tonight I will share with you my thoughts about Death and sod the believers of whatever faith they happen to cling to.

When life has gone from a human being, there is absolutely nothing else. No Heaven. No Paradise. No after-life. The person in question has gone and all that is left is lifelessness, emptiness, darkness. It's like a theatrical performance has ended and the curtain has come down. There's nothing more.

In this regard we are just like roadkill. Does a squashed rabbit go to Rabbit Heaven and what about a badger, a skunk, an armadillo, a pheasant, a fox, a pet cat? I am afraid the truth is they are going nowhere. They are dead, dead, dead and there's nothing else beyond for them.

You might ask how I know for sure that my notion of Death is the right one. Well all I can say is that it is the most logical. The ending that makes most sense. I have felt it deep in my bones since I was a boy. A feeling that has been consolidated by seeing close up the corpses of my father Philip and my brothers Paul and Simon.  Their bodies were obviously just vessels. Life had left them and they were gone.

In my view, it would be arrogant, presumptuous and fantastical to imagine for one brief moment that there could be anything beyond these lives that we are currently living. Heaven is a ridiculous notion. The only Heaven we can ever know is the one that we make here in the land of the living - finding happiness with our families and friends and in the things we do.

Living honestly, without the remotest possibility of an after-life means you are obliged to make the most of the here and now because there's nothing else just round the corner. I live with this certainty and I am not afraid to die - to enter that eternal nothingness where we all must go but I am very grateful for the life I have - a random human egg and a random sperm meeting in January 1953. That's me.

Life

Life. It's a mixture of things. A pot-pourri. Existing in the here and now, we all have everyday things on our minds. Bills to pay, appointments, immediate plans. Those strands are interwoven with our personal anxieties and our memories of past times.

Anxieties may include worries about personal health, regrets about things said or done, fretting about security or family members or perhaps wider political issues. Memories may be from way back - happy times, routes not taken, places visited and the faces of people with whom we crossed paths. All that water under the bridge. Never to flow back.

Life. Don't we spend our entire lives wrestling with it, trying to fully understand what it is? Laughing and crying. Riding high or down in the doldrums. Each journey that is taken is different from the next one but there is clear commonality.

Arguably, choice is illusory. Does anyone really determine the direction their life will take? It's more about drifting along, responding to events, making the most of things. We find ourselves in situations that are never entirely of own making.

Sometimes a blogpost may be short. Like this one...

Quiztime

Welcome to "Quiztime" - with me your genial host - Norman Bates. This week, the quiz has a theme which is foreshadowed by the image above. I am sure you will soon guess what it is. As usual, there are just ten questions and also as usual, answers will be given in the Comments section. Good luck!

⦿

1. Which country does this flag belong to?

(a) Tajikistan (b) Central African Republic (c) Canada (d) Tuvalu

2. This European flag has got a map on it. Which Mediterranean country does it belong to?

3. This is the flag of a South American country... but which one?

4. This is the flag of a famous car company but which one?

5. This is England's flag but what is it also known as?

(a) Queen Elizabeth's flag (b) The flag of St George 

(c) The flag of St  Edmund (d) The Quadrant Flag

6. How many stars are there on the flag of the USA?

7. Which country was the first to plant its flag at The South Pole?

8. This is the flag of a Pacific island nation but which one?

(a) Kiribati (b) The Philippines (c) New Zealand (d) Fiji

9. Which charity does this old flag belong to?

 

10. Below you can see some Cornish cider in a container but what is that container called?  (Clue: Think about the theme of this week's quiz)

How did you do?

Population

Blogs can be like soapboxes. From time to time, I have banged on about  population growth on this tiny spinning sphere in the vastness of this infinite universe. In the past, this topic weirdly riled my main trolls as though it was not a matter I had any authority to comment upon. Anyway, I am back to the subject this very evening - population growth.

It was in 1804 that Earth's population reached one billion for the first time. Then 123 years passed by before, in 1927, the population reached two billion. However it only took 33 more years to reach three billion which tally came about in 1960.

Onward to four billion and that happened just fourteen years later - in 1974. You can see that the pace of population growth was really picking up.

We reached five billion in 1987

We reached six billion in 1999

We reached seven billion in 2012

We reached eight billion this very year - 2024.

A decade ago, academic forecasters predicted that we would reach nine billion in 2048 but it is clearly going to happen much earlier  than that as the world's ever increasing population has just this minute reached, wait for it:-

8,123,650,251

At this rate, we will be up to nine billion by 2030, not 2048. We will almost certainly be at ten billion by then.

It is easy to see that the COVID pandemic did almost nothing to put the brakes on population growth. As the graph continued to soar upward, COVID hardly made a blip in the ascending line. Not a squeak.

I still find it odd that meetings of world leaders and climate summits  hardly ever mention our world's rampant population growth. It is as if they view it as a runaway train that cannot be halted and must inevitably plunge over the wooden bridge and down into the canyon of doom.

I am not offering any solutions, just stating the case.

Granddaughters

This morning, Mummy went to a cemetery in Hamilton, Scotland. It was to attend her young boss's funeral. You may remember me telling you about his fatal motorcycle accident in Glen Coe a month ago. Apparently there were over five hundred mourners at the funeral gathering and no doubt countless tears. 

Because Frances was up in Scotland last night, Phoebe aged 3½ had a sleep-over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She attends a nearby nursery school for three days every week and so this morning Shirley took her there.

She is pictured up at the top of this blogpost in our garden yesterday afternoon holding her beloved Monty (a sloth) and dressed in her "Frozen" costume. Also in attendance are Beau and Peep - our famous ovine pets.

Below, Margot, aged eight months, is starting to enjoy sitting in the "Little Tikes" car but because it has no engine and no pedals she isn't going to be travelling far any time soon. She remains the most delightful baby ever. Always smiley and she hardly ever cries. However, in joy rather than complaint, she will occasionally let out an amazing high pitched scream  that could shatter crystal wine glasses.

She likes to grab grandpa's face, threatening to pull off the mask that hides his true identity. And after weeks of resistance she is getting the hang of solid foods now - though it will never be quite like filling her little belly with mother's milk.

We are so blessed.

Earworm

I found myself singing this song yesterday. It was a minor hit in 1965. Written and performed by Johnathan King, there was something quite entrancing about "Everyone's Gone To the Moon". Here are the rather mysterious lyrics:-

Streets full of people

All alone

Roads full of houses

Never home

Church full of singing

Out of tune

Everyone's gone to the moon

Eyes full of sorrow

Never wet

Hands full of money

All in debt

Sun coming out in

The middle of June

Everyone's gone to the moon

Long time ago

Life has begun

Everyone went to the sun

Cars full of motors

Painted green

Mouths full of chocolate

Covered cream

Arms that can only

Lift a spoon

Everyone's gone to the moon

Everyone's gone to the moon

Everyone's gone to the moon

It reached Number 4 in the British charts and Number 17 in the US Billboard charts.

Anyway, it turns out that Johnathan King was a cunning paedophile who molested several boys and spent two years in prison for his hideous crimes. No sense of genuine apology has ever emerged from his lips.  For this reason I have decided to post somebody else's version of "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" and not King's original. This is by Chad and Jeremy:-

Names

On Beacon Hill, Gringley-on-the-Hill this very evening

This afternoon we were at day party in Misterton, Nottinghamshire. Margaret, one of Shirley's many cousins, was celebrating fifty years of marriage with her husband Steve. Over the years, I have been to many such family gatherings regarding Shirley's kith and kin and of course the same people turn up. However, these events can sometimes be a year or two apart and I can often struggle to remember all of the names.

Driving over there,  I asked  Shirley to remind me of some of the names. I even said, "What's Tracey's husband called?" and she replied, "Nigel. It's Nigel." Of course Shirley remembers all the names.

At the party I was queuing at the bulging  buffet table when who should sidle up to me but the aforementioned Nigel. "Hi Neil, " he said. "How's it going?". "Oh hello Kevin!" I said. "I'm fine thanks." "It's Nigel," he said looking slightly crestfallen that I had forgotten his name. I was apologetic but the damage had already been done.

In past social situations, I have been introduced to hundreds of new people. As soon as I have been given these strangers' names I seem to instantly forget them. I know that I am prone to this immediate forgetfulness but that self-knowledge has never helped me to forge a strategy that makes the names stick.

In contrast, as a schoolteacher, I would never forget my pupils' names. I thought it was important to address children  by name when posing questions and besides using a child's name showed a degree of respect. Shame I have apparently been unable to transfer that skill to social situations. I am like that Roger Hargreaves creation - Mr Forgetful!

How are you when it comes to remembering names?