I was with my friend Genna while we were out on one of our little excursions exploring our lovely city and I wanted to find a way to get to the railroad tracks across from the Los Angeles River for all of my life. Maybe I didn't try hard in the past but we happened upon it by dumb luck on this day.
There was a large opening in the fence that separates the train yard from the river and Genna sat down on the wall with some graffiti saying "Dying is fine" and you can see the downtown skyline in the background when I snapped this photograph.
I thought about what whoever tagged this out was trying to say. Death is a touchy subject. Some people find it hard to talk about while others find it easy for lack of a better word. I have my opinions on death, namely certain types of death. Some people may not agree with me on the more sensitive types of death so I'll leave them to myself for this moment.
I will say though that I find some sort of agreement with the statement that dying is fine in the simplest form of the statement. Life is good (for the most part). You're alive for a relatively brief amount of time and while you are, you're able to experience what life has to offer. You make connections in friends and family. You love and you lose love. You'll laugh a lot and you'll also cry a lot. Many have not had that chance to experience such things. At least to not live long enough to understand.
I'm probably not making much sense since it's 1am and I'm in the hospital keeping my father company but I'll try to put it more succinctly by sharing my experience here. I'm looking at my father right now as he sleeps in his awesome mechanical hospital bed and I don't want him to go but I understand that eventually he will. We all will. He's in his 70s so he's almost there. But as I say this I think of all the things that he's been able to experience in his life as far as I know it. He had a successful job working for the Indonesian government. He married a beautiful woman and was able to raise a family that includes three fairly intelligent children. As much as I want him to live as long as he can, if the time comes where he has to go, I'm ok with it.
I hope and wish I will be able to experience as much as he did.
:::UPDATE Wednesday, August 19, 2015:::
If you haven't been keeping up with my entries or if you're new to my blog (if so, welcome and thanks for reading!), my father has since died.
During my stay at the hospital to keep him company, I wrote multiple entries and saved the drafts to be published at a later date to pass the time and stay awake should anything happen to him during my stay, this entry being one of them.
I still find myself trying to cope with the loss and for the most part, I still feel the same way about death. Other than this small portion updating you on what has transpired, this entry still retains its original version.
"Dying is fine" / 35mm Fuji Pro 400H / August 2014