As I was growing up, my parents would remark to each other about someone famous either in
music or film, or a relative, who had passed away.
Depending on how far or close they were to
my parents lives, and how much they identified
with them...they would exhibit that amount of
sorrow. It always fascinated me and
I would take interest in listening to them,
with a mix of new sorrow for whoever it was
to a neutral learning about that person...
It seemed to me that my parents were quite
taken by some peoples passing....and that's
usually when I learned of that person...because
of their obituary. I remember learning the word
"obituary", and realized that all the recent deaths
in the local area were printed in the newspaper.
That was quite a read for a while....
The most famous person I didn't know about
until he died was Martin Luther King. I remember
sitting in the den and watching a show on television,
and all of a sudden the announcement interrupted
my show, saying that Martin Luther King was shot, and he was dead.
I was briefly upset that my show was interrupted, but I also knew
that I was going to tell my Mother the news, and maybe she would
be interested or not....
To my surprise she was devastated. She began to cry and
was so smitten by it that she was completely taken with the news.
I had no idea who this man was, or that she even knew his name..
but in the ensuing few days I saw the national funeral and non stop
news coverage about his legacy and what he stood for.
Mr. King (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was shot in 1968,
and I was born on July 25, 1956, so I was 11 years old. That
time was also filled with the deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy,
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jack Ruby, and many many
others including our own relatives.
We watch the procession of births and deaths on a daily basis....
but I for one felt like I would live to a ripe old age, and I could
live and act in any manner I wanted. Time keeps marching forward...
See the world clock here: and see the world birth and death rate here
(Right Click the links and click "Open In A new website or use your
Back button to return to the Blog)
This is the most amazing site Ive ever seen on the net
You click the little icon to launch it, and then you are taken
to the most sobering info you'll ever see. If you hover your
cursor over any country, you will see the birth and death rate
of that country in real time, and you will see the amount of CO2
being released by that country and per person!
In the US someone is born every 7.4 seconds, and dies
every 12.1 seconds. We have a population of 311,000,000+
and climbing, and we release CO2 into our air at the rate of
1000 tonnes every 5.3 seconds!! Thats 19.22 tonnes per
person per year....and thats only the US...
This website is absolutely staggering...a stunning real time
WAKE UP CALL to the citizens of the Earth to stop "Living a
Death march", and to start pulling together and conserve, and
stop populating at such an alarming rate! We might even be at
a tipping point already! We simply cannot keep going at the
rate we are and maintain the same quality of life that we are
barely enjoying now!
It's definitely time for me to start Living, in every way I can
to Love and be Loved, To Fulfill My Dreams, and more than
that, to do what I can to help my world and my fellow man!
Watch The Girl Who Silenced The World For Five Minutes
Its time my friends....what happened to me showed me
that Death is right around the corner.. it can and does happen
every second.....life is precious and fleeting, and the consequences
of our actions will no longer be local, but Global!
You can believe I'm drawing, practicing my music, and
Following My Bliss.
To hell with wasting time!
To Love and be Loved.....To make sure Im
doing my part at the voting booth and beyond!
Like 9/11 banded us all together for a short while, I
believe that world disasters will bring mankind together to
aid each other....We will be "scared straight" from being
pushed to the precipice of Eternity....To Hell with
partisan politics ! To hell with greed and corruption...
To hell with waste and pollution! If mankind doesnt act
and act quickly, there wont be a world
to gloat over in riches and authority!
OK! I can get off my soap box now...but I really have
new eyes....I have a third aneurysm and it could burst
at any time...Ive had two aorta surgeries this year, and I
wish I had a dollar for every time I was told how lucky I was
to still be alive!
We dont take our belongings to the afterlife. We dont
garner an award for how much we earn, but we sure will
still have our relationships with each other I believe, and
the quality of our judgments and actions both personal and
to our fellow man.
What am doing to help? What do I conserve? What cause
am I interested in? Who do I love, and how do I really treat
my peers? Why am I or arent I religious, or political, and how
does it really affect anything but to create an argument?
What strengths do I have that can benefit people, or improve
the quality of life?
Please leave Comments: I Love it! Thanks for reading this far....
I get to pour my heart out here and Im grateful to you for reading.
“Death is more universal than life. Everyone dies but not everyone
lives.” -Alan Sachs
Thanks
Stephen Stavropoulos
Dec 17 2010
