Appreciation (51) – Sail
away…a part memorial
Torrey Orton
August 5, 2013
Honouring them…
I seem assailed by death these days –
five more and less close acquaintances cut down in the last month by that fate
which advancing age ensures: Adele, Adrian, Alistair, Barry, and John. Their
all being within 3 years of my age probably amplifies the impact. Whichever,
matters of the end game are more prominent for me and us these days. After the most recent funeral, Jane wondered
if I’d like particular music at my funeral. This was not a matter I’d
considered, nor have I since her question.
I replied to that effect and corralled
the issue of my funeral with a lasso made of my indifference. I won’t be around
to enjoy it. But then, I did the same with my 70th birthday, so
maybe there’s a development opportunity in the matter of my recognising me. It
just seems a bit clunky to celebrate naturally occurring events. What do I do
to deserve any recognition for that?
Adrian
However, at Adrian’s funeral a couple of
resoundingly nice things happened in his honour, which are giving me second
thoughts, since funerals are for the living of course. One was the series of
slide and music presentations which supported contributions from his wife,
children, and eldest grandson. These provided well shaped, recognisable chunks
of his life, the multi-media offers making the impact deeper.
The other was the finale, announced by
his eldest grandson and marshalled by son Casey. For each of the 150+ persons present
on the day there was a helium filled balloon from a small rainbow of colours,
each with a long trailing ribbon. We moved slowly out of the meeting room
towards the jetty into the Barwon River, taking 10 minutes to get assembled
outside in the steady 20kph breeze blowing in the midday sun. Casey came last,
gathering a cluster of a dozen or so mixed balloons tied together by the
ribbons wound into a single dreadlock.
He urged us all towards the end of the
jetty and closed an imagined doorway from the shore with his fullest self.
Suddenly he led “three cheers for Adrian” followed by us masses and then said “go”
or something sufficiently to that effect that the people at the furthest
distance from him began releasing their balloons, the rest of us following
until only Casey was left with his. He let his go and by then there was a flurry
of tail-waving balloons sailing away to the south, with Casey’s cluster more
grandly pursuing them, held somewhat still by it bulk and single tail…looking
more and more like a person as it receded into the distance, preceded by the bits
of us that belonged to Adrian. That’s an evocation.
Barry
A
different one had occurred for me at Barry’s three weeks earlier. His was a traditional
(is there any such anymore?) Uniting Church service with similar numbers to
Adrian’s (not a competition; a sizing) which reminded me how far I am from such
connections, while at the same time reminding me of my Protestant Christian
background. It was, of course, the hymns which did that, though mainly by not
being church music I knew. The impact was provided by an opera quality and
volume female voice in the row behind me – the kind of voice which cannot be
denied: right on all musical counts, strangely placed in a pew rather than the
choir its quality. The service also reminded me of a part of him I knew about
but which was almost never visible in our work 40 years ago or over last 5
years on psychology committees, except as a robust ethical perception of the
everyday which shaped the world around him.
From the Australian Government Dept of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population & Communities Website-
ReplyDeleteEntanglement
"Turtles, marine mammals and sea birds can be severely injured or die from entanglement in marine debris, causing restricted mobility, starvation, infection, amputation, drowning and smothering.
Seabirds entangled in fishing lines, fragments of fishing nets, plastic packing straps or other marine debris may lose their ability to move quickly through the water, reducing their ability to catch prey and avoid predators; or they may suffer constricted circulation, leading to asphyxiation and death.
Fishing line debris, nets and ropes cut into the skin of marine mammals or turtles, leading to infection or the amputation of flippers, tails or flukes.
Ingestion
Marine species can confuse plastics including bags, rubber, balloons and confectionery wrappers with prey and swallow them. This debris can cause a blockage in the digestive system.
Turtles are known to eat plastic bags, confusing them with jellyfish, their common prey.
Sea birds eat polystyrene balls and plastic buoys, confusing them with fish eggs and crustaceans, and whales are also known to eat plastic debris".
I know it sounds lovely to release balloons into the 'wild blue yonder' but it's not. As well as the balloons themselves the ribbons and the plastic sealers also turn up on beaches and in the stomachs and around the flippers, necks and feet of marine life.
I know it's your funeral but........