Pondering about statistics

I reckon it takes about the average of three minutes to read each of my posts here in my blog. Well, according to statistics*, in that same space of time, 315 people will die, and another 750 will be born.

I might take an hour to write each post, and another to edit them before hitting the “publish” button: I’m sitting at my computer, concentrating on what I’m doing, squeezing down to the last drop, every bit of idea, out of my head, cars driving fast outside. Everything seems perfectly normal, and yet, during those couple of hours, 12,632 people have died, and 30,000 have just seen light of the world for the first time.

Where are those thousands of families who have just begun to mourn the loss of someone, or to smile at the arrival of a son, daughter, nephew, niece, brother or sister?

This made me reflect for a while. Perhaps many of those people were reaching the end of a long and painful illness, and some people are relieved when the Angel comes for them. Then again, hundreds of those children who have just been born will be abandoned the next moment and will go on to form part of the death statistics before I have even finished writing this post.

How strange. A simple statistic, which I happened to read, and suddenly I’m aware of all those deaths and entrances, those smiles and tears. How many of them are leaving this life while alone in their rooms, with no one realizing what’s happening? How many will be born in secret and then abandoned outside a children’s home or church building?

I think to myself that I was once part of the birth statistics and will, one day, be included amongst the numbers of dead. It is good to be aware that I will someday die. I understand that although life goes on and we are all eternal, this existence will one day end.

Sadly, most of us do not think very much about death. Instead, we spend our lives worrying about absurdities; we put things off, and fail to notice important moments. We never take risks, because we think it’s dangerous. We complain a lot, but are afraid to take action. We want everything to change, but we ourselves refuse to change.

If we think a little more about death, we would never forget to make that much-postponed phone call. We would be a little crazier. We would not be afraid of this life coming to an end, because you cannot fear something that is going to happen anyway.

There’s an adage that says: “Today is as good a day as any to leave this world.” And a wise man once said: “Death is always sitting by your side so that, when you need to do something important, it will give you the strength and the courage that you need.”

I hope that you, my dear reader-friends, have got this far. It would be foolish to be frightened by death, because all of us, sooner or later, are going to die. And, for me, only those who accept this fact are prepared for life.

It is when you acknowledge the vitality of death that you begin to truly live your life in a meaningful and purposeful way. We shall all go down to be part of the statistics. With that being said, I leave you this big question: “Will you go down just a mere part of the statistics or as a legend of your own?”

_________________________________________

statistics*: http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates

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Is “Goodbye” simply a word?

How do I say ‘Goodbye’? You probably asked this phrase a lot of times before, have you? Towards yourself or towards other people.

People for ages have tried to understand the ‘good’ in saying ‘Goodbye’. Is there really any good in it? Trying to understand how to say ‘Goodbye’ to either end a friendship between friends, a relationship between persons that dated or where married, or saying ‘Goodbye’ at the end of a life.

There’s a saying and it goes like this: “Don’t say goodbye, say see you later.”- Unknown. This saying is overused a lot of the time and it sends a mixed message to the word ‘Goodbye.’

In one’s mind thinking through and planning out a way to say ‘Goodbye’ is so, so much easier than pulling through with the plan. The mind consumes what we want the person’s reaction to be and plays that role in our thoughts. When the time comes to either be face to face with the person, pressing send, or picking up the phone, our commonsense starts to take over and makes us realize that what we want to happen and what might actually happen are completely different. Some might start to panic and their palms become sweaty and they decide not to fallow through or they might follow through.

Ending ones relationship, whether it is dating or marriage, the mind becomes scared to hurt and damage another human being’s feelings. Yes, all of the people out there that say they are scared of nothing aren’t being true to themselves. Ask a person what they are scared of; if they say nothing ask “What about a goodbye?” It’s not trying to undermine a person, it’s the fact of making them open their eyes and realize that they are in fact scared of a ‘Goodbye.’

Saying ‘Goodbye’ at the end of a life is where the saying “Don’t say goodbye, say see you later,” comes into effect. Don’t get me wrong that saying ‘Goodbye’ to a really close friend or at the end of a relationship is just as hard, believe me when I say I know the difference (you can check out my post A message for the woman I’ll spend the rest of my life missing.), but the human mind tries to wrap it’s thoughts around that and grasp it a little harder. At the end of a life ‘Goodbye’, a person thinks and reacts before the mind can truly process what has happened. A person thinks and reacts that way because that’s what comes natural, sure later on the mind gets a chance to process the happenings, but not before a person pants the thinking and reaction.

Now that if you will take all that in for consideration ‘Goodbye’ isn’t just a word now, is it?

No. It’s so much more than just a word. That’s why people can’t understand the word and concept of ‘Goodbye’. Why the saying: “Don’t say goodbye, say see you later,” is a mixed message is because it undermines the truest sense of ‘Goodbye’ and tries to corrupt the good side of it.

Saying ‘Goodbye’ doesn’t have to mean for forever. It can mean for a day, a week, a month, a year, a lifetime, or until you meet again at heaven’s gates. In a personal opinion saying ‘Goodbye’ takes so much more courage and strength than to say ‘See you later.’ If a person can overcome the fear and misunderstanding of ‘Goodbye’ a person can go on in the world or in heaven and feel like they have the ability to overcome any and every obstacle thrown their way.

‘Goodbye’ isn’t just a word; it’s so much more…

A message for the woman I’ll spend the rest of my life missing.

Dear Mama Fely,

The day you died, 27 days ago, I died.

And hate took over my very living being, spreading through my body like a disease. It took over, and I questioned everything. God. Religion. Life. People. I didn’t know what to believe or believe in, and to this moment, I still don’t.

Getting up every morning was a struggle. I didn’t want to go to work, but I know I have to. It’s been weeks that I was frequently absent from work. It was painful to go to work. It was painful to interact with people. It was painful to do anything, including waking up in the morning.

I hated going to work. I hated being around people. I hated being looked at like the “’poor-pathetic-thing- that-lost-his-mother.” I hated people asking me if I was OK.

I wasn’t OK.

I was sad.

I was confused.

I was heartbroken.

I was angry.

I was hateful.

I hated myself for not being able to save you. I hated myself for not being a good enough son. I hated myself for not spending enough time with you. I hated myself for caring more about my duties and work and other people and not caring enough about my mother. My mother—who would’ve done anything and everything for me.

I hated myself. And it spread through my body like a disease, killing a piece of me every time I silently cried in the middle of the night. Just like the disease that killed you.

I hated myself for not able to give the best eulogy at your funeral because no amount of words could describe who you truly are. I could have said that you deserve the highest honor the world has ever conferred to a person for just being our mother. You could have easily achieved it with flying colors.

I hated being around relatives knowing the real reason behind their presence.

I hated people telling me what to do and how to feel.

I hated, and hate took over my very living being, spreading through my body like a disease.

The day you died, 27 days ago, is the day I also died.

Everything I know. Everything I’ve tried to build in this lifetime. All crumbled down – crushing all their weights upon me, shattering all that I believed in as good. It seemed that the entire weight of the universe was gathered and wedged upon my chest that I can’t breathe – leaving me totally shattered, devastated and burnt out from the core. My breathing turns into deep, melancholic sighs every time I remembered you.

I don’t know what to do and how to feel.

All I know is that you’re dead. And it’s been many days since you’ve been dead. It took me this long to write this letter to you. It’s not the most pleasant letter I’ve written. There’s nothing pleasant about it. I wanted sit here and write nice, pleasant things. But all this miserable crap came out.

I miss you. I would do anything and everything if I could spend one more day or even an hour with you once again.

Because the way you left me was not cool. Seriously, mom, what the hell?  Do you know how difficult my life became after you left? Do you know how it felt to come home and not see you there? Do you know how difficult it was to not hear your voice anymore? Do you know how difficult it was to not hear you laugh, nag at dad, and make silly jokes?

Do you know how difficult it was to live? To figure out how to deal with you not being in my world anymore?

You were a pretty kick ass mom. You told me secrets and gossip about relatives, made me laugh and encouraged me to find creativity in everything. You were silly and let me know it’s OK to be silly. You tried to speak other dialects spoken by most of our neighbors even though sometimes I could sense that you’re just making up words and that you have no idea what you were saying. And the sad part is, I think you were actually convincing yourself that you were speaking their dialect correctly. Then you’d get funny looks and people would walk away really confused.

You taught me how to express frustrations and anger and speak “bad” words without actually having to say it. You have a way with words.

You taught me how to live. And laugh.

And your smile was so beautiful, it lit up the room. Your spirit was even more beautiful.

As I sit here writing this random letter into cyberspace, all I can do is wish you weren’t dead and that we could spend your birthday, next month, together. I wish we could laugh together, cry together, I even wish we could have an argument about something stupid for old time’s sake.

I wish you could have seen your future grandchildren from me. To take care of them and play with them. For them to have the privilege of knowing you. But fate did not permit us that experience.

Ma, I just want you to know that I am trying the best that I can to understand why you had to go. I have never doubted your love for me. You were the best and only mother I have ever wanted.

 I am proud to have been your son. I want my would be children to know their granny was a great mom and would have loved to have been around to see them grow up, but she needed a rest. I love you, Ma, and your love has given me the strength to carry on. I will need it in the difficult years ahead.

Now, I desperately need it to pick myself up and drag myself forward and try to live again.

I miss you, Mama.

 Your heartbroken son,

Andrei