By and by, the chance of the activities we have just completed
being the last time we do them increases every year. We start of doing almost
everything for the first time. That first airplane flight without parental
supervision, that first drive in a car or that first broken bone. It is exciting
and always remembered.
As age grows so does the number of ‘last time’ events.
Unless the first time, you usually don’t know it when it is the last time. The
stories are told in retrospect by the living about the dead.
I have always been one for the start of things. I have
always found the excitement of beginnings motivating while the endings have
always been that fade away as I rush to take hold of the new thing coming.
I think that is why I bought tickets for the opening ceremony
of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in November 2021 but gave the Closing
Ceremony no thought.
Then my mother died in May 2022 and I began to consider
things differently. Funerals are held at the end of life for a reason. It might
have been a successful life or an unsuccessful
one but a ceremonial acknowledgement of the departed soul has always been held
by human beings. Lives lived in service to others are celebrated with speeches
in honour of the dead while lives lived without much contribution to family,
friends and society is scrutinised for lessons that could instruct others on
what not to do in life. Nothing focuses the mind like loss. The one looking a
lost bank note or car keys thinks of nothing else. Death is the ultimate loss.
As soon as the news is received; the life of the deceased flashes across the
mind in a fraction of a second. What next happens is what has happened since
the world began. There is an intense need to dramatize the grief.
Conversations, eulogies, change in dressing ad hair styles (depending on
culture) and planning a funeral ceremony; songs speeches and prayers.
The Commonwealth Games have been very successful (at least
to me) and the excitement generated with watching medals won needs to be
channelled to something at the end. There is sadness that it is ending in the
hearts of fans while workers might be relieved that the games are over.
Everyone needs to gather to perhaps mourn the end of something great with
songs, drama and speeches. Then the energy is channelled into hope. There will be
another Commonwealth Games in four years. The circle of life goes on. This is
reassuring. There is comfort in knowing the skills acquired and displayed with
n=be passed on to the next organising committee and the torch keeps on burning.
A funeral service is similar. The children of the deceased
are living examples that life marches on through the roads that the next
generations forge. The highlights of the life that has come to an end are discussed
and celebrated. Records broken, feats accomplished and personal disadvantages
overcome are mentioned. A reminder that life is a battle with victory there for
the taking and when you die there are no more battles to fight on earth.
In practical terms the chances of having an international sporting
event being hosted in the city I reside in and my house being walking distance
from the stadium is really low. This might be the last time this happens so I might
as well take up this opportunity.
I bought my ticket late for the closing ceremony. It will
get dark and when the slow songs start that reassure the soul about meeting
again in four years for another tournament; no one will see my tears. My mind
fleets between the funeral I must attend and the closing ceremony I will be
attending. Birmingham 2022 will be but a memory after the closing ceremony.
