That Which Defies Death
During the last days of Macondo, the fictitious (but really, how fictitious? Don't South American and Czech writers heavily allude to their national history when they write?) town in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Hundred Years of Solitude, Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula were lying together one night when they heard the traffic of the dead in the Buendia ancestral home - which stood with a resilience as formidable as that of the matriarch Ursula, having seen the rise and fall of 4 (or 5?) generations of Buendias - the traffic of the dead, which consisted of Ursula talking about some relative who had gone to the afterlife well before she herself had; Fernanda praying, I think her rosary; Col. Buendia obsessing about his wars and tiny gold fishes; and a whole lot more dead adding to the escalating ruckus with their signature ways, and there, the couple arrived at an "Ah!" moment: They realized that obsessions can actually prevail against death. With that, "they were happy again with the certainty that they would go on loving each other in their shape as apparitions..."
Makes you wish you'd end with somebody who'd feel as much - and with whom you'd KNOW as much. Well too bad Amaranta Ursula happens to be Aureliano's aunt. (Nyahaha.)
So what would be my obsession that would endure long after I've died, and have gone to heaven? (If you're wondering how I could be so certain, my doctrine of salvation says I'm saved because Jesus died for me. More on this later.) I rather think I have 3:
1. think to the point of exhaustion (can't help it - it's a hobby)
2. almost drive Jesus to boredom with my talk (but I bet Jesus would be so polite, He'd stifle the yawn to the very end)
3. clean my heavenly home (but would there be dirt in heaven to clean? parang wala) and bake
How about you? What would YOU be doing?
:D
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