Second funeral, and I ask, "In light of this death, what does this death make light of my person?" The funeral and the economy go hand in hand, you see it in the plastic water bottles they hand out, the food eaten, the disposable cutlery, the fact that there is a pastor of sorts to manage the whole thing. Does this waste I create respect the dead? I see it as you die, your body that belonged to Earth goes back to Earth and is the property of the Earth, creating pollution just because I'm mourning the death of one person kind of goes against that. In a way, I interfere with the cycle of life using what is conveniently distributed and kind of obstruct the dead's passing body from decomposing and returning to the Earth. Though, that doesn't literally happen, but technically you can see it's the statement we make when we mourn in a funeral using what is here. Then there is classes of mourners: those closest to the deceased and those that are friends. The closest handle all of the technicalities of the funeral. Friends come mourning and pay lip service to respect then leave. That there is an inequality amongst people connected to the dead person reminds me of the business of the living. When we mourn the death of one, a funeral is held and a negative form of hoo-ha is raised. There's the stragglers that cry and make a big deal of it, but most don't. That kind of alludes to the nature of the relationships each of us had with this deceased.
That reality in itself is not beautiful, and is plainly not a reflection of the good things we say about the dead. So another separation between the words and deeds done and the thoughts that come up naturally. Don't even talk about the money that money is being paid to have this funeral, it doesn't go with the look of the occasion. That, money, is sort of in the background and people silently worship the fact that there is even a funeral only possible through money, we kind of look up to money as a god and thank god that money has looked kindly upon us, and is looking kindly on the dead. Never mind it's the same money that drives people to violence. The same money you use to threaten and protect your position. What would be really respecting the dead? Is it to own up to our misdeeds and live a life worthy of being supported by Life? We can only worship and respect one, you can either respect the spirit of the dead which is gone to another place for sure, or respect the body left behind that is returning to the Earth. One leads to harm, the other leads to good.
Fighting with the spirit of the dead as the memories you have of the person or the personality that you know to be the person, you can imagine what happens. Let me ask it this way: are we respecting the dead by censoring the bad of him, emphasizing the good of him, and showing up to a funeral then leaving and moving on with our lives? The consequence of that is no change, the foundation of your mind is kept, in spite of creating a mess, plus you're obstructing the dead from decomposing properly, any lessons you could have learnt are forgiven, you remember him fondly but simultaneously you continue to calculate and disrespect others you label your enemies, you remember him according to the human he is, while implicitly stating everyone else should be gods by now and perfectly unobstructing your self interest, there's an inequality with the attitude we give to the dead, and the living. Respecting one human life that's dead now is not as easy. If you think about it properly, it mirrors everyone else's one human life.