Born & Death vs Hi & Bye

I just completed two 2018 episodes of a Korean Variety show called 집사부 일페 or All the Butlers. Their master is a 70-year old actress who was talking about death already. They even had a photoshoot for the photo she wanted for her funeral. It sounds creepy and funny at the same time. But we want it or not, death is something we cannot avoid. We may have a long life, a 100 years or more to live, but the ending will be the same, death.

Watching the series would let you realized things. Am I ready to die? What memory should I want people to remember about me? And so on and so forth.

And for sure, majority of the people are not ready to die. At least for now.

Then this made me realized something. Being born and dying are just like saying hi and bidding goodbye.

How? Here\’s how.

All of them happens somewhat unexpected. It sometimes happens when we least expect it. It may even catch us off guard. Sometimes, we will be surprised. But the question is how we feel with that surprise.

Being born, though a pregnant woman has an expected date of the arrival of her baby, there are still chances that it would change. Right? The doctor would even say a date range. Or maybe advised you that you may give birth on that date plus, minus. Meaning, it can also be earlier or later than that date.

Just like saying Hi. Sometimes, we have expected guests at home for example. The date may be fixed but the time is mostly has the chance to move. Instead of morning, it can be at night. Another example is if you unexpectedly meet a friend in the shopping center or park or anywhere you did not expect her or him to meet. Or even with someone we expect to meet like friends.

Dying, on the other hand, is still unexpected. We don\’t know how our life would end. We may meet an accident on the road while going home. We may not be able to survive from our illness. Though, for some, they would expect that it will happen for example those who have terminal illness or machine dependent. However, still, we cannot define or set the time. It will still come on the time we least expect. Even those patients that are machine dependent and need to remove the machine. The families would still sometimes catch off guard on making that decision.

Just like bidding goodbye. We sometimes don\’t expect our guest to say goodbye. Maybe suddenly a family member called her for urgent matters and she needs to go home earlier than she planned. Or saying goodbye for a family member from other place and visiting you for a few days. Though you have an idea when she\’ll depart, but the time could still change or even she could stay longer or shorter.

Being born and saying Hi are both about arrival of someone. Arrival of a baby, a friend, a family.

While dying and bidding goodbye are both about departure of someone. Still a friend, a family.

The emotions of someone when you born or say hi are happiness and excitement. Parents will be thrilled to welcome a newborn. Not just them, the whole family and friends. Everyone can stop looking at the newborn baby, fake pictures, carry, sing a song, dance on a lullaby or just play around. The same feeling if someone would say hi especially if it has been awhile since you last see each other. And if you miss each other. There will be non-stop of talking, laughing and asking how have you been.

Whereas for dying and bidding goodbye, there will be the feeling of sadness, loneliness and even sorrow. Some will mourn and cry for days or even months or years. The feeling of longing for someone you love and will never see again. The only difference in dying and bidding goodbye is that if someone dies, you cannot see them again other than the afterlife. While if you bid goodbye to someone alive, there will still be many chances that you meet again. But still, it is with heavy heart to say goodbye. That\’s why, some would take time to sah goodbye to a friend or family after dining out or meeting. Some would even extend their time just to spend longer together.

When someone is born, we would always say Hi. And when someone dies, we would always say Goodbye. Right?

But let us remember, we arrive and depart. Either in our home or this life. We may not be ready now. Or we do not think about it yet.

But let us do something now that we would be proud of later. Let us ask ourselves how we want to be remembered and what legacy we want to leave.

We are just temporary in this world. And so, let us stop getting too attached to earthly and material things. It\’s not bad to love these things but let\’s stick to our limitations.

After all, we cannot bring anything from this world when we die. Like when we did not bring anything to this world we were born. 😉

Keep safe, everyone! 🙏

I hope this makes sense. 😁