Posthumous

 I have been posting many a rant, an opinion, a post on this blog for few years on.  As posts go I guess I have also dabbled in positing my views on death and all that is not life.  Cannot remember the specifics.

But the recent few months has seen a number of living beings in my circle stop.  Living that is. And thusly it gave me a moment to reflect on them or their absence posthumously.

Hence this post about the posthumous.

Derived from Latin for 'after the death of the father' it is also conflated as 'after the dirt hits the coffin'. I guess if you are Hindu belief it should then be 'postignis'.  As in after the fire.

But I also reflect on how it is that we as sentient beings want to remember the once living.  Example, in the posthumous events that are now enabled via technology. Zoom calling a bunch that knew the dead and commiserating is but one of the many ways people are handling the emotional dimension.

Celebrations of life or vigils or wakes or other manifestations of visiting with those left alive continue.

What I also find amusing is that all the good about a person suddenly is being showcased or spotlight more than it was when this dude was alive.  Why is that?

Did he or she all of a sudden gain certain prominence simply by their final absence?  Or is it simply etiquette or social more?  Probably the latter since the dead frankly could care less.

It may be a chance for those in the woodwork to appear and appease those living for some sort of salve on their own conscience.  Who knows but for one I would not want any posthumous activity to be conducted other than ensuring all the paperwork is in order.  It can be a pain for the relatives to deal without given how our society operates.