Reading the #KISS Blog Topics for the week, and others' entries too. I’ve seen that there are just so many views to share. And truly, you can’t go around each day, be part of a family, be part of a friend group or an organisation and you wouldn’t notice these things that happen every day in our society. But I'll mention a few.
This was the first thing that came to mind as soon as I saw the prompt and before my head is offered on a platter for trying to supposedly dictate how people should honour their dead loved ones, I’ll just say that I have no judgements and I have no objections in honouring a loved one the way you see fit. But the effects of these burials, especially in my society aren’t always felt by just the people throwing them. First, it was the addition of the word, “Ceremony,” to burials, making it a burial ceremony.
Now, I grew up hearing just burial. But with the addition of this word to it, people have gone to all manner of ridiculous lengths trying to surpass each other on who threw a better burial. Even though I could never be in support of lavish weddings, it at least sounds less weird than saying you want to throw a lavish burial. I don’t get it. The sad part is that most of these people who claim to want to give the biggest honour to their dead relatives never did it when they were living.
There was this family friend that as long as I could remember was constantly imploring people to beg her only son to come take care of her. That she was suffering and that her son had completely abandoned her and never thought to call, let alone visit her. Last year, she passed away, out of heartbreak or despair or depression, I wouldn’t know. But soon enough, the neglectful son came back from his wanderings, quite well to do actually, and began ordering that cows be slaughtered, a casket made of gold be ordered and a one-week feast should be done in her honour.
I was astounded. Honour?? That was never shown when she was alive? I doubted that poor lady had eaten a full piece of chicken when she was alive and now her son intended slaughtering cows in her honour when she was gone. It’s so messed up. And sadly, it’s so rampant. People competing on whose burial celebration drew the biggest crowd or was the talk of the city.
Another in this list is education. I do know that people should give their kids the best education they can afford but I feel the concept of education is ridiculously fussed about. I’ll take this concept from two perspectives. First is the choice of school. Everyone wants what’s best for their kids but I’ve seen parents incur a lot of debt because a neighbour or a friend sent their child to this expensive school and then they get insecure and break their backs, borrow, take loans with terrible interest rates just cause they want to meet some vain standard. And for what?
The next part is career choice. I don’t know if it’s as prominent as before but I still see a lot of families put so much pressure on their children to be lawyers and doctors and engineers. And even though, there’s not as much money in those careers as before, they believe the prestige in those careers precedes anything. So, there’s so much fuss where careers are concerned. You could mention that you’re a Food Technologist and get the stink eye that clearly says, “So, in essence, you cook?” It’s terrible.
I’d like to add one more which is Trending items. Phones, clothes, and accessories, to mention a few. I, for one couldn’t be caught dead with whatever is claimed to be in vogue. Most times I only ever fancy an item when it’s no more in style and is considered completely outdated. I don’t see the attraction in walking on a street and you can see at least ten people wearing exactly what you have on. And as for phones, I can’t even begin to explain how amusing I find the fuss for the latest iPhones. Selling an arm to get the iPhone 13 and before you blink, the iPhone 17 is out and since you don’t want to be seen as being behind the times, you sell another arm. How ludicrous is that?
Do I think there’s hope that people will ever have a different mindset about these things? No. I have no faith whatsoever that people would suddenly have, not even a minimalist view this time, but just a logical view. But it doesn’t change how unnecessary it is to me. But maybe people can see things better in the long run. I wouldn’t bet money on it though.
So, this is my contribution to The #KISS Topics on the things people fuss over that could be done more simply.
