Followers

Showing posts with label finite creatures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finite creatures. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 July 2015

WordPress daily prompt: Finite Creatures

At what age did you realize you were not immortal? How did you react to that discovery?

A Visit to the River Mosel area in Germany

First of all let’s have a photo to counter balance this happy go lucky theme (one of my photos taken in Germany). Yes one day we will no longer be here due to some sort of uncontrollable happening. At what age did I realize this? I do not remember ever thinking about it in my younger years. This only happens when you become a golden oldie and notice in the newspaper you have constantly less friends and acquaintances and if you do not know what to do to occupy the time, then there is always funeral you can attend.

I could have posted a photo of one of the local cemeteries, even an international cemetery view, but they all look the same. A stone, a mound and words saying perhaps  “We will never forget” or the good old “R.I.P.”. So how did I react to the discovery that one day it will be my funeral everyone will be attending and celebrating with a meal and a glass of wine afterwards (if I have any friends left). One day my daily prompt, or daily anything, will no longer appear. Where has she gone you  might be asking. Did she at last get her Pulitzer/Nobel prize for her fantastic writing or has she robbed the bank and disappeared with the money.

You will not know, you will never know because my time will have come. I will be watching the daisies grow from the roots or perhaps be just a shower of ashes in the wind. There is always a possibility that I will join the vampire clan. winging my way through the darkness of night to find a new victim containing a fresh supply of blood for my needs. If this fails I can always fly through an open window of the local blood bank at the hospital and who knows? I might even find a bottle of the red liquid with the name “Mrs. Angloswiss” remaining from the earlier days when I was a blood donor.

You may think this is a morbid piece of blog to read, doesn’t she have anything better to do with her writing time? And you are right, but I did not choose the subject. The first time this prompt arrived I was younger and really making efforts to write something worthwhile, to leave my mark on the blogging world. Today I am just writing for the sake of writing because I cannot think of anything better to write about.

Even the weather is too hot and humid to take a walk in the neighbouring countryside, usually to the next cemetery which lays just around the corner. I am currently living in a dark world and luckily can escape to the porch to write in the open air. Indoors the atmosphere is oppressive, the dream of every vampire’s day. There is no light. The sun has been banned. All the blinds are closed (we have no curtains) and the windows shut to ensure that no ray of sun or fresh air enters the apartment. Temperatures outside are an average of 30°C and it has been wind still, although today there is a warm breeze trying to compensate. This morning we even had a shower of rain, which has become a rare commodity over the last month. Now and again I enter the apartment to be confronted with words “Shut the door” as fear has arrived that a breath of fresh (all be it warm) air might penetrate the darkness. Of course this is sensible to maintain cool temperatures during the night. My neighbour across the field has found the correct solution. She lives alone, is also a golden oldie, and sleeps outside on her porch. I have thought about this, but my felines complain. They do not need a human body sharing their summer sleeping quarters.


Now I will leave you, not permanently, but my writing task is now finished and remember, you are not immortal. There are facts that should be fixed in writing for the case that the daily prompt might want to know all about it.

Monday, 20 October 2014

WordPress Daily Prompt: Finite Creatures

At what age did you realize you were not immortal? How did you react to that discovery?



Present from my cats


This is a dead mouse. The mouse is not blurred because it was moving, it was my hand shaking with the camera. This mouse was probably completely convinced that he was immortal until he met my cats. Even then the thought probably did not cross his mousey mind that it was be the last encounter of his life.  My felines were proud (I cannot remember which one it was) and brought the mouse to show me. I picked it up by using an inverted small plastic bag, and it went to the happy mouse hunting grounds.

What a happy go lucky prompt we have today, but it is food for thought I suppose. Was it the first time when I killed a fly, leaving his squashed remains on the window pane or was it on one of my early childhood walks over the cemetery? Mum made a habit of taking me to the cemetery when I was a kid. We visited a large grave, containing five departed, the last being my maternal grandmother who I never really knew. I do not think that mum knew who else was in the grave, it was all before her time, but the names helped me when I was exploring for my family tree. There was still room for one apparently and that was going to be my grandfather, although he stayed around for a few years, being almost 90 when he decided to fill up the grave. I often wondered if he new that his place was secure. Growing up in such earthly circumstances it never crossed my mind that I might still be here when Armageddon arrived. By the first shower of frogs and the arrival of the four horsemen of the apolocalypse my time would come in any case.

Oh, come on, there was never philosophical discussions in our family about life and death, it just happened and I grew up with it. It never entered my mind to be immortal; I just got on with life.

Living in Switzerland casts a different outlook on existing or not going to the next step on the journey. I remember when I moved into the Swiss way of life and we had a daily Swiss newspaper. There were always 2-3 pages included (according to the death toll) with large black square outlined boxes showing names and dates of life spans. Details were given when and where the funeral was taking place, or already had taken place (those that wished to get it done and done with without a big party) and the near relatives were neatly listed at the bottom. No. you could not get away with being immortal in Switzerland, everyone knew when you were gone. “Did you see xxxx has passed away?” “Yes, there was an obituary in the newspaper, he was older/younger than I thought.” When the daily newspaper arrives in the post box you do not study the headlines, you turn to the last pages and see who is no longer amongst us.

There is a disturbing detail in this whole thing about “let’s read the obituaries”. I am now 68 years old, not exactly fit, but still writing the daily prompt and looking forward to writing many daily prompts. One day there will no longer be a daily prompt written by me. Do not be disappointed, there is always someone else that will write a daily prompt and Wordy, being immortal, will let you know I am sure. Not that Wordy was asked, but he just needs a touch of oil and a few new screws and he is as good as new.

I have also noticed, much to my regret, that the birth years of the deceased in these black surrounded boxes in the newspaper, are approaching mine. Ok, we all have to go one day, but I do not have to have a daily reminder. I think I will stop reading the newspaper. Mr. Swiss has just returned from his daily afternoon walk, guess where he was? Yes, he took a walk over the cemetery and was annoyed to notice that the gardener had not yet replaced the flowers on the grave for the Winter season. It seems he is probably overworked at the moment, everyone wants their grave to look good for Winter, especially as Halloween is approaching. You have to keep the spirits happy.

On this happy note I will leave you and hope to return tomorrow with some more words of wisdom.

Click here for more