On Hearing of a Death
We lack all knowledge of this parting.
Death does not deal with us.
We have no reason to show death admiration, have or hate: his
mask of feigned magic lament gives us a false impression.
The world’s stage is still filled with roles which we play.
While we worry that our performances may not please, death
also performs, although to no applause.
But as you left us, they broke upon this stage a glimpse of
realtiy, shown through the slight opening through which you
disappeared: green, evergreen, bathed in sunlight, actual
woods.
We keep on playing, still anxious out difficult roles declaiming,
accompanied by matching gestures as required.
But your presence so suddenly removed from our midst and
from our play, at times overcomes us like a sense of that other
reality: yours, that we are so overwhelmed and play our actual
lives instead of the performance.
~author Rainer Marie Rilke~
This past week the world lost two of Hollywood’s iconic celebrities, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. They were images of my teenage years. The Fawcett-do was a very popular hairstyle that I tried to recreate with my curling iron when I was 13 years old, however, this was simply impossible with my straight Asian-black hair.
My high school years, were my Michael Jackson years. Before the days of iTunes and CD’s, I played the Off the Wall and Thriller albums over and over again. I remember my friends and I taping these albums on a cassette tape so that we can play them on a ghetto-blaster and dancing to songs like Bad, Billy Jean and Thriller at my house or a friend’s place to practice for the upcoming High School Dances.
Farrah and Michael were icons to my generation and are reminiscent of my years as a typical adolescent awed by the images of the entertainment world.
On another note and closer to home, my week ended with yet another somber occasion. I attended a Memorial Mass for the three Irish doctors who were passengers on the ill fated Air France flight from Rio de Janiero to Paris on 1 June 2009. It was a lovely way to celebrate the lives of these three young women.
I knew one of the three women, Eithne Walls and I had the opportunity to meet and exchange happy memories of Eithne, with her mother and siblings.
It was a pleasure to have known Eithne. I enjoyed her positive outlook on life. Her laughter and her youth was a breath of fresh air to those who were around her.