Life

Some would say rest in peace, but I'd say who wants that? No, I say make merry in the otherworld. Today I went to the funeral of an old friend. A sad day. It was someone I hadn't hung with for at least 25 years. We first met at Bournemouth Town Hall disco in the late 70's and for the next decade we moved in the same circles, he was a laid back guy, always smiling; and then life took us along different paths. Even though I'd not seen him (other than in passing) since then, I still felt compelled to go and I wasn't sure why. Then something another old friend I'd not seen in years said really struck a chord. He said that he'd been to a few funerals of people he hadn't seen for years and it didn't matter that he'd not seen them for years, he went because at one point they'd been part of his life and therefore of his journey and that that meant something (that was slightly paraphrased, but only slightly). We are the sum of our experiences, and those experiences are invariably shared with others. And it dawned on me how essential it is that we keep creating experiences, more memories. A funeral brings life as well as death into sharp focus.