Smile At My Funeral

I wasn't there, but the story goes something like this:

We have a Thai version of a convenience store at the head of the road, a short distance from our house. We buy small quantities of this and that there frequently. A, being the outgoing and friendly soul she is, has befriended the proprietors (as well as the language barrier permits). The owner's daughter, nicknamed 'Bo,' is enrolled in Bangkok University and speaks enough English to qualify as a novice interpretor, so communication is always easier when she's around.

A always has a camera at the ready and generously gives folks prints of photos she's taken of them. Many of our neighbors, like the motorbike taxi drivers, cannot afford cameras, so A's offerings are always warmly received, accompanied by wide grins and much (undecipherable) laughing chatter.

Two days ago, the English speaking daughter, Bo, told A that her grandmother, her father's mother, had died the day before and her casket was in state in the Wat (Buddhist Temple) close by. She asked A if she would please take pictures of her family in the Wat, in front of the casket. (The body would be cremated the following day.) A followed the family to the Wat and took a number of pictures of the funeral setting. Bo then insisted that A should sit for a photo that Bo would snap. The result is what you see above. (A photo of the deceased is displayed to the left of the casket.)

Bo also asked A to smile for the photo, something she thought inappropriate; a smile that seems terribly out of place, considering the circumstances. In a sense, Bo's request for A to smile telegraphs a bit of the Buddhist take on death, which certainly recognizes loss and bereavement, but, more importantly, also recognizes the opportunity for rebirth into a happier life and cause for celebration intertwined with bereavement. My take on it is that the belief in reincarnation is a close cousin to the belief in salvation promised by other religions. We seem to take great comfort in the idea that we will continue somehow, somwhere, in some state, and complete darkness is not our inevitable, egoless fate. There's only one way to find out, of course, and we all face the truth of that little matter.