There is some saying that God notices every sparrow who drops dead to earth.
Yesterday, in the NYT an article about elderly Japanese dying unnoticed in their apartments drew over 200 anguished replies within hours.
Apparently, owing to basic changes in Japanese society, thousands of Japanese men and women now in their 70's and 80's and 90's are living in vast tracks of bleak government buildings and when one dies in one of those apartments, the only way anyone knows is a stink from the decaying body calls attention to the fact.
A new industry of body removal and apartment decontamination has sprung up.
One man was not discovered for an estimated 3 years, and the cockroaches and mice had picked his skeleton clean.
The reasons for this phenomenon include changes in the economy so that multigenerational family homes have disappeared and Japanese have few children, so if you are a widow and your one offspring dies before you do, there is nobody on earth to notice when you die.
A woman in the story arranged with her neighbor to call for the body removers if she has not raised her window shades in the morning.
Talk about living in isolation. It's not really the idea of dying unnoticed so much as living unnoticed which got to me.
As we age in America, our kids grown and moved away, we become less and less relevant, less important, and we accept this. We retire. More than retire, we withdraw. One of the things about continuing to work is if you don't show up, somebody may notice.
We express our opinions and nobody listens. As Bill Clinton noted, leaving office was liberating because he no longer had to be so careful about everything he said; he could say anything he wanted to say, no filters. Trouble was, he added, "Nobody cares what I say now."
Of course some elderly folks still command attention--Warren Buffet, the Koch Brothers and Donald Trump.
But the day they retire, well they'd have to pay somebody to go find their bodies.
Watch those dottering preachers on TV, all those prosperity church men and women. They will get on TV and exhort their congregations as long as they can because as long as they can get on screen, they matter. They matter because the money keeps flowing in--just send your cash and God will Bless YOU!
This has got to be the ultimate alienation: I do not matter. I'm just road kill.
At least the crows, ravens and vultures pay attention.
The circle of life.
Yesterday, in the NYT an article about elderly Japanese dying unnoticed in their apartments drew over 200 anguished replies within hours.
Apparently, owing to basic changes in Japanese society, thousands of Japanese men and women now in their 70's and 80's and 90's are living in vast tracks of bleak government buildings and when one dies in one of those apartments, the only way anyone knows is a stink from the decaying body calls attention to the fact.
A new industry of body removal and apartment decontamination has sprung up.
 |
| Kodokushi |
One man was not discovered for an estimated 3 years, and the cockroaches and mice had picked his skeleton clean.
The reasons for this phenomenon include changes in the economy so that multigenerational family homes have disappeared and Japanese have few children, so if you are a widow and your one offspring dies before you do, there is nobody on earth to notice when you die.
A woman in the story arranged with her neighbor to call for the body removers if she has not raised her window shades in the morning.
 |
| Death was Noted |
Talk about living in isolation. It's not really the idea of dying unnoticed so much as living unnoticed which got to me.
As we age in America, our kids grown and moved away, we become less and less relevant, less important, and we accept this. We retire. More than retire, we withdraw. One of the things about continuing to work is if you don't show up, somebody may notice.
 |
| They did not die alone; small comfort |
We express our opinions and nobody listens. As Bill Clinton noted, leaving office was liberating because he no longer had to be so careful about everything he said; he could say anything he wanted to say, no filters. Trouble was, he added, "Nobody cares what I say now."
Of course some elderly folks still command attention--Warren Buffet, the Koch Brothers and Donald Trump.
But the day they retire, well they'd have to pay somebody to go find their bodies.
 |
| In American Concentration Camp |
Watch those dottering preachers on TV, all those prosperity church men and women. They will get on TV and exhort their congregations as long as they can because as long as they can get on screen, they matter. They matter because the money keeps flowing in--just send your cash and God will Bless YOU!
 |
| Somebody noticed |
This has got to be the ultimate alienation: I do not matter. I'm just road kill.
At least the crows, ravens and vultures pay attention.
The circle of life.
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