Walden Cabin: Observations typed on an old Underwood

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Famous last words

You can’t believe what you read in the newspaper. Truth is often lost to wishful thinking or to the need to paper over pain with myth. That’s why you’ll never see “Israel is guilty of war crimes”, or “Canada is not a real democracy”, or “Dad was not a good father”.

Have you ever seen an obituary that read like an account of a real life? To read them, you’d have to conclude that only the purest and most loving among us are dying. And those of us left behind have only our delusions to console us until we join them “on that bright and distant shore”. Rubbish.

Tributes without truth render them meaningless. I’d like to see an obit that pulled no punches. Something like: He was a hard working man who freely gave of his time, but who was unable to open his heart. His faith was tainted by bitterness, and by an inability to forgive or to ask for forgiveness. His family grieves for him and for his unexamined life. He was loved, and did love as best he knew how, but he was not comfortable with himself or with love’s power to heal.

And what is wrong with this? The struggle to engage people openly and truthfully with love is something each person faces. Not all succeed. But others too will fail to live fully if we continue to lie to ourselves, and if we fail to learn from those who went before. Speak the truth or save the trees.

posted by Stuart Hickox | 11:24 AM



	Tuesday, October 01, 2002 Famous last words You can’t believe what you read in the newspaper. Truth is often lost to wishful thinking or to the need to paper over pain with myth. That’s why you’ll never see “Israel is guilty of war crimes”, or “Canada is not a real democracy”, or “Dad was not a good father”. Have you ever seen an obituary that read like an account of a real life? To read them, you’d have to conclude that only the purest and most loving among us are dying. And those of us left behind have only our delusions to console us until we join them “on that bright and distant shore”. Rubbish. Tributes without truth render them meaningless. I’d like to see an obit that pulled no punches. Something like: He was a hard working man who freely gave of his time, but who was unable to open his heart. His faith was tainted by bitterness, and by an inability to forgive or to ask for forgiveness. His family grieves for him and for his unexamined life. He was loved, and did love as best he knew how, but he was not comfortable with himself or with love’s power to heal. And what is wrong with this? The struggle to engage people openly and truthfully with love is something each person faces. Not all succeed. But others too will fail to live fully if we continue to lie to ourselves, and if we fail to learn from those who went before. Speak the truth or save the trees. posted by Stuart Hickox \| 11:24 AM				Head for the Hills of Prince Edward Island Walden Cabin >> "I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front the essential facts of life and to see if I could learn what they had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden; Or Life in the Woods (08.21) Walden Cabin is a publishing creation of Accolade Intermedia, an Ottawa-based communications company that specializes in content-rich Web products. www.accolade.ca >>
	about us \| current article \| archive \| home Copyright 2001. info@accolade.ca Accolade Intermedia Inc. .