Category: Seasons

When finished, clean it

The last service we will receive from the microbial community that stays within us throughout our life since we are colonized at birth -in the womb we were microbe free- will be to be consumed by it when we die. This statement by Dr. J. Gordon in the paper quoted in the last post, strikes as shocking. But soon we realise that nature is sage, and features cleaning procedures when this complex process that is human life is no longer feasible. For a 70 year old life, the body will have renewed around 7 times its 1013 cells; excluding the microbes that go along with it. We can think of the body as a community of 1013individuals lasting 7 generations ( the average age for our cells being 10 years as I commented two posts ago). A noteworthy figure, the whole mankind along 2.500 generations will amount “just” around 100.000 million people, 1011.

Regarding housecleaning and recycling, our environment of artificial items is not as effective as nature. When we die we leave behind a heap of things, furniture, table service, wear, papers, books, tools, photo albums, video tapes, letters, frames. And somebody will have to be responsible for getting rid of all. Those who had to empty the apartment of a deceased friend or relative can tell that this is a hard job. What could we do in order to ease things for the people to come? Get rid of unnecessary things in advance? Perhaps there are letters o writings that we want to keep while we are alive but are so private that we would not like them to be read by strangers. What do we think it would be worth preserving? Should we point where do we keep legal documents?

New digital media present a new version of the same problem. Today we don’t leave behind shoe boxes filled with old letters and pictures, or notebooks with personal diaries and travelogues, folders with drawings, etc; we leave files. Files in our hard drive, files in mail servers, in social networks, posts in blogs, pictures in Flickr or Picasa. We still don’t have a clear idea about what we should do with them. Should everything be preserved ? Or everything deleted after a certain time has elapsed? Maybe there are valuable websites that are going to disappear when a certain domain or hosting is no longer paid. Some of them may still be retrieved through backup copies from Google or the internet archive that regularly takes snapshots of some sites. Who is entitled to claim for a certain digital legacy? Imagine the case of a writer or thinker that dies without heirs. Can Scholars ask for hard drive an email access? Perhaps today Kafka would have given his laptop to Max Brod asking him to delete everything after reading.

But in most cases, our contents are not the equivalent of a Proust manuscript, an Egon Schiele sketch or a Clifford Brown recording. So, when present users start to die, gigas and gigas of digital garbage will be left. In the “offline” world, our heirs will have access to our belongings, apartments or bank accounts, either because we had given it beforehand, either because they receive a legal entitlement afterwards. What can we do in the digital world? We can subscribe Legacylocker services where we can set the recipients who are going to receive the passwords to our accounts once our decease is verified. But does this solve the problem? What are they going to do? Backup it? Delete it? Browse it all and make a selection? It’s impossible to dedicate to this task so much time. And what is to be done with social networks accounts? Facebook offers to memorialize it if someone proves that the user has passed away. This means that further logins are prevented and access limited to confirmed friends. The wall remains open so that friends and family can leave posts in remembrance.

For those really provident, my wonderful life allows you not only preparing your funeral, writing your obituary, and designing your headstone (!), but also writing letters to people you love, listing where your stuff is, listing your favorite music, memories, photos, etc. and give instructions about taking care of your pets. I cannot help thinking that, if we really want to communicate something to somebody, or share our musical, art or cooking discoveries, we could start doing it right now while we are still alive, there is no need to keep waiting our friends and relatives for an email with a link to our digital legacy when we will have passed away. On the other hand, I have serious doubts about whether we should want to leave a permanent legacy, as if this could help in relieving our anxiety for the fact that our life is ephemeral. Perhaps it’s better to exit discreetly, without loud noise and leaving no burdens behind. My daughter said once that our imprint could be like that of a rain that has fallen. I like this idea very much, an easy rain, that wets the soil, waters the plants, and leaves no visible trace. I’d rather be like a rain that comes and goes, than a plastic bottle that is going to stay forever.

An appropriate post for All Saints day!  perhaps this is going to be a series following last year’s post,  Death row, life row. Also related: Extending life span, New runners, last steps.

Postcards from the terrace, late winter 2009

There has been the white narcissus, the strawberry tree, a new pine out of a nut, the mimosa, the viburnum and, just at the beginning of spring, the cherry tree has blossomed.

So many memories
flood my mind-
cherry blossoms

(Basho)

The company of a ladybird that settled in the terrace comforted me. It doesn’t seem to be very sociable. I hope its going to eat a lot of aphids.

 

Almond Trees Blossom 2009. Mont-roig del Camp

My anual date with almond trees blossom has been at Mont-roig del Camp, where Miró used to spend their summer holidays.

There is a lovely little route that crosses fields with almond and olive trees.
In the old church there is an exhibition about the painter and directions to the locations related with some of his works. Here is  “La casa de la palmera”.

Death row, life row

Every year by All Saints Day we remember the deceased and perhaps, just for an instant, think about death. A great deal all philosophy and religion is a meditation on death. In literature there is the recent Nothing to be frightened of by Julian Barnes.

I remember some news about a book written by a Texas Death Row Chef. In the USA those going to be executed have the right to see their spiritual adviser, choose a last meal (a site with some examples: deadmaneating.blogspot.com and  prepare a last statement to be released (a list by the Texas department of criminal Justice).
I confess that I couldn’t resist the curiosity, whatever morbid, of taking a look at them. I feel justified when I realise that, as I’m not going to escape death, somehow I’m in the Death Row too. Last meal and statement are a good opportunity to think about one’s own attitude towards death.
Most of last meal requests are not elaborate cooking, just fast food, for instance “a bacon cheeseburger with jalapeños, french fries, two slices of apple pie with vanilla ice cream and sweetened iced tea” or “One whole fried chicken (extra crispy), salad with Thousand Island dressing, French toast, two diet Cokes, one apple pie, and French fries“ (Why diet coke?)
The problem of choosing one’s last menu is a reduced version of the question “What makes me happy?” after a “Carpe Diem” invitation. An extended version would include the possibility of choosing a last view or scene, listening to a particular music, perhaps a last trip to some place. I’m not sure what my elections would be. From the point of view of the last opportunity, everything seems precious, a sophisticated menu or just an apple, may be red wine and cheese; a last trip to a lake in the Pyrennees or contemplating the faces of people commuting to work in the morning.
Many of the last statements I’ve read express regret to the families of the victims killed, and love to their own. Often they have found comfort in religion. Some of them address too the other fellows on the Row and the wardens. Some declined the opportunity of making a statement and a few can’t help a profanity.

Yes I do.  To my family, to my friends, and people who have accepted me for being the person that I am.  To the Sullivan and Hayden families, I do not come here with the intention to make myself out to be a person that I am not.  I never claimed to be the best person.  I am not the best father, the best son, or the best friend in the world.  I did the best I could with what I had.  I come with no hate in my heart or bitterness.  To my family and to you people, I can only apologize for all the pain I caused you.  May God forgive us on this day.  I am ready when you are.

Yes. I just want to let you all know that I appreciate the love and support over the years. I will see you when you get there. Keep your heads up. To all the fellows on the Row, the same thing. Keep your head up and continue to fight. Same thing to all my pen friends and other friends, I love you all. I can taste it.

Uh, I don’t know, Um, I don’t know what to say.  I don’t know.  (pauses)  I didn’t know anybody was there.  Howdy.

The reading is devastating,  particularly for the frequent “I’m ready, Warden” at the end. This statement allows the condemned to release a balance, an account of life, ask forgiveness for the evil done and express affection. While it’s unlikely that most of us are going to make explicit such a balance, I guess that sometime we will think about people we did harm, whether intentionally or not, or people we would have liked to express affection, and did not. When I think what I would say it is not an easy exercise.
For those who really would like to do it, there is what is called a “legacy letter”, or “ethical will” where people express love, or regret and try to transmit their values. This can be particularly important in case of parents terminally ill that want to leave a guidance message for their children.
I said that somehow, as we cannot escape it, we too are living in the Death Row. It’s just the execution date is not fixed and, of course, our cell can be quite comfortable, perhaps a couch and TV set, some books and even a nice view. We can attend visitors or share the cell with whoever. We can cook the meals we want or even go out to a restaurant. No wardens are watching us, we can go out, wander, explore neighbourhoods, cities, mountains, rivers and go back only if we want to. There are so many differences that it reminds me of an old joke: “Waiter, please, cafè latte, but no milk, and instead of coffee, I’d like whisky”. Well that’s a whisky, not cafè latte. This is not Death Row, but Life Row!

 

Spring with water restrictions

Drought imposes restrictions on water consumption and I have suspended automatic watering in the terrace. My emergency plan consists in:

  • mop the floor without detergents and use the dirty water for the garden.
  • Fill a bucket with the water that we let flow in the shower while waiting to reach the appropriate temperature.

I hope this will be enough to keep alive wonders like:

new shoots in a rose

cherry blossom

rock rose (cistus albidus)


topped lavender (Lavandula stoechas)


That, in collaboration with a lost swallow, announce, just in case I hadn’t realised yet, that spring is here.

Almond Trees 2008

A bike route in Empordà, through;, per Ullastret, Ultramort, Rupià, Parlavà (ruta 8 of “Pedalant pel Baix Empordà”) in a bright morning has brought to me the sight of the first blossomed almond trees this year.

Admirable, they are indifferent to human worries, they don’t care about next elections or whether we come to see them alone or in company, merry or melancholic, attentive or not, every year, following their own reasons, they blossom and replay this show, concert of light and colour:

We have the solo:

chamber music

concerto for soloist:


and symphony

 

Extending life span?

Actually sis answers to the question “What are you optimistic about and why”  in edge.org regard as a most desirable and positive feat the extension of life up to 120-150 years. To me it’s weird the emphasis on longevity rather than on quality of life.

(1) Too soon? Or too late?
Now, while the idea of prolonging life no matter how does not thrill me (one ancestor of mine used to say that she would rather not live very, very long, otherwise she would think that God had forgotten about her) I am not for putting an expiring date either, like yoghurts in the supermarket. The question would be, taken that death is unavoidable, how or when would you like to die? What age? What loss of abilities is still acceptable? I seems that, either we die “too soon”, still in full possession of our faculties, and that’s a pity, or in clear decay, after months or years of slow decline, which is also a pity; and that would be “too late”. When would be the right time? I don’t know, probably none.

(2) What about a renewal plan?
A hypothetical problem. Let’s assume that by year 3011, technology allows extending life up to 500 years. And let’s assume that the planet can support a limited population, for instance, 10 billion people. So, for the following next period of 500 years, we can choose between 5 sets of people living a 100 years span, or 1 set of people living a 500 years span. Or two sets of 250. What would be the best? Wisdom and experience and a world populated basically by venerable elders? A higher renewal tax? A mix of both? Let everyone choose and see what happens? I don’t know. But some day we will we asked to answer the question about how long are we supposed to stay on stage until this “last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything”. [As You like it II, vii]

(3) Living longer, what price?
It has been said, that half of all spending in health care is done in the last year of life, suggesting that medecine invests unreasonable efforts in trying to expand life. The statistics are not so evident according to a Medicare report but it is obvious that there is a border between what would be medical actions for assuring some quality of life and medical actions for mantaining vegetative functions of an organism. That’s what the “living will” is about.  On the other hand, the irruption of antiage treatments brings forth the issue of how to implement or fund them. It is going to be limited to those who can afford it? Are you going to live as long as you can pay for it?

(4) An aesthetic point of view
All in all it is a hard issue from the point of view of science, religion, philosophy, bioethics … There is no happy ending.
I believe that thinking about it from an aesthetic stance could help, as if we were assessing a screenplay for TV or scene, or the performance of a tune. If we had to write a good death for the main character, what would be a good way to die? A never ending scene that became boring like a tune that never stops while tired musicians play out of tune? A big bang finale? If I had to say it in musical terms, I’d rather have it like one of those jazz tunes when, after several chorus, the main theme is played and then a riff is repeated a few times, softer and softer until only a slight graze of the drums brushes is heard and then all vanishes.

Almond trees blossom 2007

Although this winter has been very warm, in the beginning of March we found almond trees in full blossom, this time near Capafonts in Prades mountains.

capafonts
When seen from some distant point, along the dry mountain, they look as little clouds of mist placed regularly on the hill slope.
I wonder when they were object of contemplation for the first time. Japanese parties to celebrate cherry blossom are documented in Heian era, but they can be traced as far back as the Nara period when they reached Japan from the Tang dynasty in China.
florsvas
Along human evolution, when was it that a hominid stopped his daily run, pursuing a prey or trying to avoid becoming one, to look at a flower in an absolutely disinterested way, and not only as a hint of near season weather change. It is probably a question as hard to answer as when someone laugh for the first time.
I can’t remember either when was the first time that I interrupted something I was doing to look at a flower, or an ant. Pure contemplation is not rare among children, they hold their ability to wonder, and the ability to pure play, like a young cat with a hank. Perhaps later we only look where book guides tell us to.
That’s why I like to watch people in a contemplation state, children absorbed in some little mystery in the street, an expression of wonder in the visitor of an art exhibition. Some mornings when I cycle to work along the beach I can see someone sitting on the sand, looking the sea at dawn, probably without knowing that they could be used as a introductory example in Burke’s or Kant’s treatises on the beautiful and the sublime.