Closing Ceremony (The Last Time)

 

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.