On encountering DEATH! Translated…
That fish had been sinking and swimming, just barely staying afloat in the tank for a week already, at first I saw it was afloat at the top, thought it was dead, I’d gotten closer to look, then, it’d, waved its tail fin side to side, swam away very quickly, that was when I’d discovered, that fish play dead too!
But, for the two days that followed, while all the other fish inside my tank all swam carefree, only that one kept “playing dead”; I’d thought that it wasn’t a good sign, and I’d gotten my husband to come and “collect its body” every now and then, but he’d looked relaxed, and tossed the line, “Can you see that its pectoral fins are still moving?”
It’s still alive!
At this time, that sense of mercy took me over, like I’d heard it struggled with its final breaths, but I didn’t know how to put it out of its miseries soon enough, and started feeling a bit depressed about it.
And so, as I sat in the living room, I’d gazed upon the tank with an unease, seeing how the fish lost its mobility and just floated toward the top, with the gills slightly opening and closing, the fins on its under side occasionally flips, there were several times he’d attempted to swim back toward the bottom, but didn’t have the energies too, and then, floated back up to the top again. I’m thinking, that it was, nearing its end, just waiting for that right time, to say goodbye to us.
A short while ago, an elderly neighbor went into the ICU for a week, the doctors told the families to be prepared, and as they’d received the notice, they’d immediately called the funeral home to measure the freezer for the body, and everybody in the neighborhood all went to visit, we’d all though that the person was already dead, wanted to pay our final respects, but the families told us, “we’re still waiting”, and then, the group of neighbors can only leave with that unease.
For the days that followed, as the neighbors bumped into each other, they’d wanted to ask, “Is he doing any better?”, but didn’t know if they should ask, “Is he dead yet?”, it was, quite trying for all of us.
No matter if be fish or man, life has a termination point, as they were barely breathing, or about to die, are they waiting for the right time to come, or are they still hanging on to this world of the living? It truly would be difficult, to say goodbye, to sever the earthly ties!
And so, this, is on life and death, like the fish and the neighbor, and, it makes us wonder that is there a SET time for someone’s demise? There must be, otherwise, wouldn’t the person or the animal just die already? And they must be hanging on for something right? Or, it may just be us, overinterpreting the matter, and failing to remember, that if they’re not dead yet, it simply means, that it’s not their time to go…
Life, the Obstacle Course 