I was taking some relax time while drinking my morning coffee and going through the News Feeds on Facebook, and read this interesting post from a guy I had been in High School with:
"Damn, will I play at the funerals of the whole city? At this pace, there won't be anybody left in a few weeks" (my translation)
It happens that this guy is a classical musician and seems to get contracts playing music at funerals (that I didn't know as I haven't seen the guy in over 10 years). So, today, he's complaining that he has 10 funerals lined up this week-end, including 4 at the same time (oops)... The post itself is interesting, but the comments on it are even better, as some people reflect on how strange it is to make money off of people's death (and mostly, to wish the dead keeps coming so that the mortgage can be paid), and others are simply trying to move their schedule around to take some of the contracts, without really paying attention to the fact that... they're working at funerals.
Well, it also made me re-realize that, at my funeral (if I get one), some people will be sad that's true, but others will simply be there to do business... life keeps on going... with death.
So interesting. I used to work with a girl who owned a funeral home with her family and would assist as a mortician and do body pick-ups, among other things. She used to comment on how busy she would be in a week with all the bodies piled up in the morgue. At the same time, she had this attitude that stated "hey, it's paying the bills!"
ReplyDeleteSimilar to your situation, but not at the same time haha.
Yep, it's very interesting to think that such a tragic situation can be taken in a very 'matter-of-fact' way by others. The context of the "bodies piled up" is also very important in the way one is reacting to this expression... In the present context, I didn't feel that bad finding it a little funny (as it was brought up in a matter-of-fact way), however I would have feltmuch worse if the pile was referring to bodies found after a genocide, disaster or other... even if I didn't have affiliation with those people at all. Very interesting those changes of perspectives!
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