"Eleanor Rigby died in a church and was buried along with her name."
This seems the saddest thing in the world. To live alone and then die alone, forever buried, forever forgotten. And yet that is the way most of us will go. I was talking about it with my father, and when I expressed how inimitably sad it seemed to be buried along with your name, he expressed that it happened to most everybody. When he grew up in Bangladesh, many people would visit their parents' graves many times a year, especially around Eid. Here in America it's different; many visit only every few years, if that much.
I saw the truth when he described it this way: A man dies, and maybe his children who loved their father will visit his grave sometimes, keep his memory alive. But their children? Maybe they'll tag along, they'll listen to the stories, just maybe they, too, will visit and his name will be remembered. But their children, and theirs? Soon the location of the grave would be forgotten, the name buried beneath many records of the more recently beloved and deceased. And he, too, would be left at the mercy of time.
There is then the philosophical dilemma:
We all die alone, said Orson Welles. Until now, I had thought that was all there was to that famous quote. And how I disagreed. Of course, when one dies, the ones you love don't go with you. But to have them at your side, have their love and company surround and embody you, surely this means something when one's time comes. And so I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the entire quote.
"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone."
If you work at it enough, can the illusion not become the truth?
Ok. Cue 180 degree spin.
Alright. Now that we've done that, I can totally alter the mood of this post from pensive precocity to wholesome pictorial fun! I now present some photos, from vacations, road trips, school, and of course the inevitably totally-random-I-don't-really-even-know's.
Here are gas prices less than a year ago: November 28, 2008. They were lower before the election....hmm....do I hint at conspiracy? Right at this moment the national average is $2.62 and where I live it's $2.88 at its lowest for Regular....
Next are some long-awaited pictures from our trip to Japan!!
1. The inevitable Engrish. Oh the love. We had just arrived in the airport. Narita, I think?
2. Our first meal! Fish, of course. And the mandatory miso and rice. Which is gohan in Japanese, bhaath in Bengali and bhap in Korean.
What, no picture? Ok, on the next post. I know it's somewhere...
3. Our first morning! It was a bit cloudy, but oh well. We were just in time for the beautiful, famed sakura blossoms! Here I am in all my striped glory.
4. Ever wondered what the streets of a Japanese city look like? Well, here you are.
5. And here. Tokyo in the early morning.
