Today, the body of Sen. Edward Kennedy traveled from Hyannis Port to Boston along a route that included some of the late politicians favorite places. Spectators cheered respectfully as the hearse went by.
Television and radio reporters talked reverently about Kennedy taking his final trip through Massachusetts. Hello? With all due respect, he wasn’t taking the journey. It was his dead body.
I kept thinking, wouldn’t it have been better if the LIVE Ted Kennedy covered that same route a few weeks ago, taking in the love of his state’s residents while he was still alive and able to drink it all in? That would have been a real moment for everyone.
This clapping for a lifeless body shows how much we suspend our belief when it comes to death. That’s just part of our DNA. We don’t want to really acknowledge death so we put our loved ones in velvet coffins with comfy pillows (please think about how strange is that) and chat with them graveside.
I’m convinced that we should all have our memorials and funerals BEFORE we die. Like a fish about to be caught in the net, most of us don’t know when are time is up. So tomorrow, use the good china for no reason. Wear your party dress just because. Tell the people you love that you love them for no reason at all.
Don’t wait until you’re dead — and people applaud you, but you won’t even know it.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 OliversMommy // Aug 28, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I totally agree. I also wondered the same for Farrah Fawcett. Why do we do this? Especially CNN. I wonder why all these people come out AFTER the person is gone! Good post.
2 Wandrin // Aug 28, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Well said.
Not sure why we take death so seriously. Frequently I wander cemeteries looking for humorous epitaphs on grave markers. Good way to get exercise with few results. Not necessarily humorous, but excellent advice found on the stone of a deceased 65 year old doctor: “Eat dessert first. Life is uncertain.”
3 Paulie // Aug 29, 2009 at 2:30 am
Funerals are not for the dead. They are for the living.
4 Jungefrau // Aug 29, 2009 at 4:38 am
I will only say that yes, it was indeed Ted Kennedy making that trip, because Kennedy has never been anything more than his body. Everything that made him, well, him is still in there, it just don’t work no more.
5 aprilsteele // Aug 29, 2009 at 7:38 am
I, too, have found this pomp-and-circumstance regarding Senator Kennedy’s death more than a bit ridiculous.
My neighbor felt compelled to drag her 9 year old son into Boston today to stand outside for an hour for their chance to pay their respects to a flag draped coffin. On the last day of our kids’ summer vacation, no less.
My mom has always said–bring me flowers while I’m alive, not when I am dead. I think I will bring her some tomorrow. I haven’t given her any in a while.
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