Life Eternal

Well - for sure, this one will be short and sweet unlike my previous ramblings. My cousin in Raleigh, NC (U.S.A) was the source of this, which I think is quite an interesting take on the topic.

In some ways everyone wants to live forever - and although different religions and cultures have differing beliefs on how to achieve this - Christian's believing that once you die after having led a good life you could go straight to heaven where you would have everlasting bliss, Hindu's believing that your next life would be governed by the way you led your current life - following a cycle until you attain Moksha.

However it is obvious from the way we all live that we cherish our present existence so much that we dread the fact that one day it will be all over. Nowadays with the advances of science people are trying to overcome just this hurdle via cloning and other techniques - which even with all its opposition is a forgone conclusion in the future.

But have you ever considered this......

As long as you are single - your life is centered around yourself: yeah, we all talk about being concerned about parents, relations and friends. But the truth is that it is 'I' who comes first followed by the rest. Don't take me wrong on this issue - self preservation is a very important trait among humans - and is intrinsic to its very existence and possibly has played an important role in the dominance of man on planet Earth.

However when you have offspring, something changes. Look around you - and you will surely notice the same. The young one now becomes the object of singular attention of the parents - who would typically go to any - yes ANY extent to preserve the existence of the little one. One may casually cast it as 'over protective' parents - but Glen (yup, that's my cousin's name) had an interesting take on just this matter.

From L-R (Veenas' folks with Veena, lil Nicole, Glenn and Ethan)

As he put it - the parent sees a younger mirror reflection of him/herself in his baby (I am sure you have heard different people comparing the likeliness of the baby with one or the other parent). As the parent sees it - this baby is like clay - which can be fashioned in thought, mind and body just like him(her)self - to be virtually an extension of oneself.

In doing so - the parent achieves immortality - since he/she now lives through the baby. As Glenn rightly put it - this is why a parent will put him/herself in harms way - sometimes even at the cost of his/her own life.

Dad lives on through meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :-)

This thought would also justify why a parent would be so devastated at the loss of a child - especially an only child; because in the child's passing away the parent unconsciously sees his/her own mortality and the loss of a chance of everlasting life.