The Lighter Side of Death

“Hi I am Art Buchwald and I just died” These were the first words of Art Buchwald “after his death” on January 17, 2007.

On January 18, 2007, the day after his death, “New York Times” posted in its website a video obituary of Art Buchwald, in which he had appeared with a smiling face and announced the world that he had “just died”. Yes, the genius had his last laugh.

Art Buchwald was the most famous political humorist who won Pulitzer Prize in the year 1982, for his outstanding commentary. He wrote in “Washington Post”, which was carried by many other papers also as a syndicated column. His column was published in more than 500 newspapers all over the world (including “The Hindu” in India).

The octogenarian columnist was suffering from various ailments. His right leg was amputated and his kidney was failing. He had to undergo dialysis several times a week to keep him alive. He told his doctor “I don’t see any future in this and I don’t want to do dialysis any more”. The doctors gave him just three weeks to live without dialysis and he had moved into a hospice expecting to “go quietly into the night”. But he started getting better and his kidneys started working again in a medical miracle. He lived nearly a year after that.

According to him, he was the “only person who became famous for dying”. He wrote in his column “I never realized dying was so much fun”.  He concluded his column with these words “The moral of the story is: Never trust your kidneys”. 

Then he started writing his last book “Too Soon to Say Goodbye”. The book has a lot of his trademark one-liners. “Dying isn’t hard” he writes, “Getting paid by Medicare is”.

Art Buchwald was one of the greatest humorists and he could laugh even in face of death.

Romeo Error 

In the famous Shakespearian tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” an error in judgment on the part of Romeo causes the death of Romeo and Juliet. On the day of her planned marriage to Paris, Juliet seeks the advice of Friar Lawrence to escape from it. He advises her to take a “sleeping potion”, which would make her unconscious and make her look as though she was dead. Romeo comes to know about Juliet’s “death” and rushes back to Verona to be with her. On his way back he buys some deadly poison. He goes near Juliet and kisses her for a last time and with the words “Thus with a kiss I die” he drinks the poison and dies.

When Juliet wakes up she comes to know of what happened. She takes the dagger of Romeo and kills herself. If Romeo had not committed the error of assuming that Juliet was dead, both of them would have lived.

There is a very famous book called “Romeo Error – A matter of Life and Death” written by Dr.Lyall Watson. In this book he cites a lot of such mistakes made in the medical world and tries to understand the reason behind them. In this fascinating book he tries to define what is the difference between life and death. He writes, “Romeo Error is still being made – and it will continue to be made because the differences between life and death are blurred by our current inability to define either state with any clarity”.

The Coffins and the Mummies

During my trip to Ghana, I had the opportunity to visit the National Museum in the city of Accra, where I had seen a few brightly colored coffins. In the Ghanaian tribal tradition, funeral was not only a time for mourning, but also for celebration. The coffins are made in exotic designs and colors. Many a time the coffin is reflected the dead person’s life. For example, if the person was a driver, his coffin may be made in the shape of a car. They believe the coffin is going to act as a vehicle and home for the dead person in the afterlife.

       

Another well-known tradition is the Egyptian Mummies. The mummies are first embalmed, wrapped in bandages and then kept inside beautiful human shaped coffins. I have seen many such beautiful coffins and mummies in the British Museum. This art of embalming and mummification is at least 5000 years old. This tradition was related to the beliefs of ancient Egyptians concerning the afterlife and was intended to safeguard the fate of the soul of the departed from evil spirits.

‘Dying is very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it” – Somerset Maugham

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve it through not dying” – Woody Allen