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Winter Non-Entry 2015 An Attempt at Comedy About An Old Man

leonard267 · 2016-01-03T06:56:27-01:00

Day by day, hour by hour, this pain festers and grows Weakens flesh, embrittle bone, and the mind it slows Steadily and mercilessly, it pervades None it spares, its wrath hard to assuage What is this malady? That this attempt-at-a-poem makes so scary? It is really arthritis, osteoporosis, dementia, general organ failure And all of those problems we associate with ageing This epigraph, seemingly pointless like most other epigraphs, is really a portrayal of the inner anguish of a certain Otto, well advanced in his years, well reminded of how old and decrepit he is and then brushes it all aside since everyone of his age has to go through it as well. The problem with that though is not all is well. After all, he had lived a life filled with challenges seemingly insurmountable, like attending school and struggling to attain good grades so that he could struggle to work a job for several decades so that he can struggle to purchase insurance against an accident that would never happen. Other challenges he had struggled to overcome included struggling to hoodwink a woman into a matrimonial union with him then struggle to take care of her and their offspring in what was surely the worst of struggles, or so he thought. It would appear that the greatest challenge of all for Otto was to attend (to) funerals of first his immediate relatives and friends who are older than him followed by the funerals of his immediate relatives and friends who are not so much older than him. When his parents kicked the bucket in his forties and fifties, he had had to worry about where the funeral ought to be held, how much it would cost, whether the people attending (in contrast to attending to) the funeral would be willing to give enough money to offset the costs of holding it and squabbling over his siblings over inheritance issues (though in both cases, it was about deciding who should inherit the debts left behind) When his friends and older siblings were kicked out of the realm of the living, he needn't worry about funeral arrangements. All he needed to do was to attend their funerals, ascertain whether they are truly dead and then ponder on his mortality. The first two were easy to do, but the third placed upon him tremendous emotional strain, not because he is necessarily heartbroken to see the people he knew for so long go away, but heartbroken that these are signs that he himself is about to go away. So, the fear of death, in addition to his bodily problems that frankly afflicts almost everyone who have lived over half a century are really the reasons why all wasn't well. It could be because of his obsessive nature or his tendency to worry about the most trivial matters but try as he might to brush them off he would still fret about them. It didn't help that he felt like going to the toilet every one hour or so or that any attempt to run would come with searing pain in every single joint in his body. If one were in his or her teenage years and is experiencing the bitter taste of what it is like to go through the daily problems that most adults have to face, he or she might pen a whiny poem about Otto's predicament in something perhaps around these lines: MY PARENTS ARE DEAD, MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD, THERE IS SOMETHING GOING WRONG IN MY BFF'S HEAD MY HANDS ARE LIKE LEAD MY FEET ARE LIKE LEAD AND EVERYONE'S TREATING ME STRANGELY IT'S ALL VERY SAD! Indeed, it is perfectly normal for most of Otto's close relations to be six feet under or cooped up in an urn at such an advanced age. It is tragic but not entirely expected for his best friend to go gaga considering that his brain cells are old and worn out. Much has already been said about Otto's ever declining physical ability and it is natural for his surviving (and younger) family members like his children, nephews and nieces to treat him like a child in need of around the clock care! So in the face of all of this what should he do? Otto being Otto decided that the only panacea to all of these problems was to worry and work to solve those problems. A less flattering word to describe his efforts can be found repeated in a bizarre fashion in the first few paragraphs of this writeup -- struggle. It is not entirely unfounded. Most of his peers who have pushed up daisies beforehand have decided not to worry. After all, the most sensible thing to do after having worked and laboured for several decades was to rest. And rest in peace they did! Since this wasn't what Otto wanted, he did the exact opposite and behaved and worked just like he did in his younger years albeit with the aching bones, barely controllable bladder and bowel movements and the ever dwindling number of people he could call his peers. Otto's situation is like a caricature of some killjoy Buddhist doctrine which describes life being a cesspool of bitterness. However, he certainly didn't prescribe to Buddhist methods to extricate himself from that situation and attain nirvana for he is so wedded to this primordial instinct of self-preservation. If life have to come with arthritis and finding out that you have a longer lifespan than your friends, so be it. At least Otto is still drawing breath! For those setting your eyes on this and are feeling that this writeup is a bit anticlimactic due to a lack of resolution, rest assured this is what will happen to Otto one fine night: He would go to bed with a list of worries and concerns in his head, some real while others made up and expect himself to wake up in the morning tomorrow attending to those problems. What he would not expect that much however is that his body could no longer cope with the physical stresses that come along with age and then it would be THE END Spoiler: Which is an end much better than dying from a long chronic illness, getting blown up due to an accident, dying in bed after being infirmed permanently because of a toilet injury caused by a sudden stroke while one is using the toilet... The list goes on frankly speaking!

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leonard267 FAKKU Non-Writer

8 years ago

Sound of Destiny wrote...

I never really understood why some people wanted to grow up to be this old. It seems like it'd be such a bad time between losing important people and not being able to use your body in the same way you used to. I'm sure I'd find it dreadful. All in all, fun read. Nice picture by the way; that car really threw some people for a loop.

Thought people would realise that the car is a hearse and death will be the theme of this entry though. Personally, I think my life will play out like this which is better than suffering the things I listed in the spoiler.

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