Courtesy of Shorpy.com
Kitty Hawk is Kitty Hawk because she's first to have flown and in fact still very much flying within my airspace…
As the sending-off-party waved her on her final few “departure” steps into the security gantry and off to the departure hall...more tears flowed down from the eyes of a mom who can't endure the sight of sending her child away for such a long period of time.....
The right decision?......for your own good?......I wouldn't really know, but nonetheless, i told auntie that "it's the right choice"......
Well...i hope you make full use of this opportunity......and hopefully, fulfill what is expected of you and return home once the objective is achieved......
Right….back to where I was, I turned and saw my friend flooding her eyes out with tears, and as I jokingly mocked her, she “bet-ing-ly” replied, “you’re gonna cry when you get home, I bet!”
That didn’t happen, but my mind was thinking about Kitty Hawk’s departure for the rest of the entire day……Her leaving, made me wonder…..wonder on the issues of departures and how things like going away and in fact, death, affects those who stayed, or are still living…..
Didn’t had much break through though, as I also had my mind and day occupied with sleeping and playing computer games, until I caught this really, really delayed telecast of the Oprah Winfrey’s Show…..in which she invited children of some of the victims of 9/11 and interviewed them on how they had to adjust themselves to the sudden departure of their parent(s) and cope with their death emotionally and psychologically…..
Then it struck me to write about this, but me, being me, had to think more, one just wasn’t enough…so yeah, there I go, spending more time confirming my own thoughts, debating over and over again in my head.
The result was that I managed to recall this one episode from, AGAIN, a really delayed telecast of “Chicago Hope” by our/my local television network. That episode toys with the issue of righteousness and death.
In that episode, was a positive girl, with good grades and a bright future ahead, the only set-back she had was a very critical heart condition. Then came along this really negative man who had lost his will to live after some accident that caused him to be paralysed(at least that’s what I could remember) and that man contacted a local doctor of his and told her to end his life and donate his organs away.
As America has this integrated computer network system between hospitals and stuffs (I am not sure whether it is at the same level real life though), they discovered this man’s heart was a match to the girl’s body. But it is also under the law of their country not to allow the man to be “euthanased” (now, really, don’t question my memory and just let me go on with it, though I must really apologise for any misinterpretation of their law or even the show)…
So yes, it’s a heart, it’s not like kidney where humans could still live happily after losing one…back to the story, the parents learnt about the news and held high hopes that their daughter could finally end the long wait for a “natural” donor and be cured.
Now here’s the deal, the surgeon of the girl refuse to give this act of “kindness” a thumbs up, as she felt that it is not right to end one’s life just to save another, at least not in the medical sense. Her concern (as they need to make their local state judiciary agree to this before the surgery could be carried out legally) was that, if they would allow this case to proceed, more of those who plans to make a killing off organ sales, would go all out forcing others to die (basically kill them and make them look like they wanted to do it “to save lives”) so that they could sell their organs and the fact is that organ sales do make a lot of cash if made legal…
Anyway, such act is mostly considered unethical by the society and so the doctor was torn, she, herself, had very much wished that the girl can leave the hospital healthy, but in the end, she decided, no, she has to be responsible for the others who may be affected should this proceed “unnaturally” and in the end she chose “Righteousness”, the girl’s parents could not accept this and they went to court in attempt to make this “transaction” possible…but to no avail.
The girl however, remained positive and understood the doctor’s point of view, her future, whether she lived or not, was unknown (to me at least)…
Right, back to Oprah and the children…
Everyone in the show had a chance to share their experience post 9/11 after their parent(s) tragedy…one was a 16-year-old girl (if I remembered correctly), she had a 3-year-old brother, their mom, was a single-parent and she was one of the 9/11 victims…
They’re now living with their grandmother, but despite that, the 16-year-old felt like she had suddenly became a mother herself, trying to take care of her young brother. In the show, she caught my attention by telling Oprah that she is trying hard to hold up the family like her mom had always wanted to, and other kids on the show too, like her, tried to live their lives like how their late parent(s) wanted them to, to be a good person and stuffs like that…
I told you guys that the show struck me to write this, but what is it?
It is death, and departure…
I began to explore and wonder around this issue that is considered to be rather sacred to human beings, regardless of race, language or religion…
Death of a human being normally means a lot to the people around the person, so as departures, for a certain amount of time, but for my convenience, let’s just stick to death.
People grieve, people remember, and that’s why death is always, always more than just one less living thing on earth…
If you could choose to die now and save the world, would you?
I would not hesitate to say yes, provided my death would really have such positive effect…alright, I think my tagboard is rather quiet, let’s just say, if you’re reading this, answer my question on my tagboard would you?...thanks…
As I was saying, death is more than that person going to hell or heaven, but hey, who in world knows what those 2 places are like?...Who knows?...Hell could be a lot more air-conditioned than heaven…but I am agreeing to the fact that people actually do believe in such things, because, like many religions, it gives people a sense of direction on how they should be living their life, if they do more good, they are “most likely” gonna be headed up to the clouds for a better “afterlife”, so why not right?...It makes people do good and be nice…I think…
Then here comes my next question, let’s not ask you to die again, heh, this time, if you knew, your presence in the surrounding of certain friends of yours or even lovers of yours would have negative effect on them, would you leave them?...Get away from them?...Get some distance?...So that they would live a better live without you?...In simple terms if you found out that you’re a burden to a team or to your partner, would you leave?...Do me another favour dear readers, answer that too would you?
In my opinion, death/departure is so powerful it changes things, it’s like a spoiled child without his mom, he learns, to be independent, to deal with life. For me, if I have to leave my friends for such good reasons, I would. But of course, if I feel that staying with them I could have a change to make a positive impact, I would stay.
You may think that death and leaving is too extreme, well, the fact is, I do too, but just how much does it take for humans to learn?
-Watch “The Happening” it’s a good movie-
HOW MUCH DOES IT TAKE?
If anything, the victims of 9/11 helped the rest of the world to learn to not take security for granted…
Szechuan earthquake helped the world to put away differences/nationalities and help each other...
The slavery in America teaches us to respect each other, and that all humans should be treated equally…
The many, many, many accident victims on air, on sea and on the road, taught people how to prevent it, how to stop it and how to survive it....
The Chinese pharmacologists who died from staying indoors for 10 consecutive years to compile a book of medications and remedies to illnesses, which we now know it as 本草纲目 or Compendium of Materia Medica, taught us that one’s little effort and sacrifice could turn out to be one of the greatest contribution of mankind…
But despite all that, WE HUMANS JUST DON’T LEARN…
The Americans didn’t learn from all of its 9/11 victims that violence can only cause more tragedies and more violence.
The accidents and the death toll reported in everyday news fail let people learn not to drink and drive, and it failed to educate people why we should drive responsibly, driving without a license is definitely not being responsible. It isn’t being cool, that’s call being foolish…
We humans like to enjoy life, always want to and always will. But sometimes, we live in our own world too deeply to realise that whatever we do to make ourselves feel better affects others in many ways…
-Watch “Into the wild” it’s a good movie too-
But all those that I’ve said would mean nothing, when your death doesn’t matter…
How would you feel if you’re living a life that doesn’t matter to anyone?
Whether you are there or not it wouldn’t have made a difference?...
My friend told me about this quote, “Life is like making a movie, make it a blockbuster”…Movies like “Ironman”, “Armageddon” and “the Day After Tomorrow”, you must have seen it yourselves, if not, at least heard of it, but if the movie you made or are making wouldn’t even matter in the box office, why make it?...In other words, you might as well die now…..BUT WAIT, don’t die yet, no, not yet, just because you’re still alive, you get your second chance, START NOW, you might not succeed, but in my opinion your spirit and determination would absolutely mean something when you DIE TRYING.
“Don’t strive for success, Strive for SIGNIFICANCE”
and I personally believe, when you get significance, you would have achieved many successes along the way
Start now, MAKE DIFFERENCES, my friends…
And last but not least,
“Happiness is only real when shared”
awakening the memories...like never before...
