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From:  cirocco |
Date:
March 4th, 2010 06:37 am (UTC)
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Oh, God rest his soul. I'm so sorry, Phil. Here is the eulogy I gave at my Gran's funeral in 2005. She was my heroine.
***
I think we're all familiar enough with the outlines of my grandmother's life that I needn't recount them here. My late uncle Steve would write of her: "My mother was a woman who overcame many difficult challenges in her life with extraordinary will, love for family, and constant faith in god. I am old enough now to realize how many of those challenges could have resulted in bitterness. Rather, my mother's love and strength of character was a joy to be around and set a fine imprint on all subsequent generations of our family."
When Wil, my former fiance, first met Gran he told me afterwards: "Everything I love about you... I can see now where it comes from." I think that's true of many of us gathered here today; her blood runs in our veins. I think that as long as we carry on her legacy she shall not perish from this earth; a legacy best exemplified by the following passage from Luke:
"Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."
So if any of us are clinging to grievance and anger, I ask of you: release yourself from it. Forgive. Let it fall away from you like the heavy weight that it is and love one another, for all our human imperfections. As long as we do this her spirit shall remain.
Thank you.
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I'm sorry Phil. I hope you take comfort in all of the time you got to spend with him.
My heros are probably Bridgit, my brother Kris, and Jason.
Bridgit for all of her faults has always been there, has always supported me, and has shown me how to make the best of even the worst situation. She's reminded me what it means to be unpretentious and loving and opinionated. She treasures the people close to her.
My brother is wickedly witty, crazy smart, can build impeccably, can bake impeccably, and to top it off he is an incredible musician. Anything he's ever put his mind to, he's done and he's done it the best that it can be done.
And Jason. Jason stood by me at my worst time and I know that I can count on him for anything. He's overcome so many hurdles and continues to do so by meeting them head on. Similarly to Bridgit, he reminds me that to be unpretentious is a goal to strive for and to truly appreciate and love those that are close to you.
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I'm not sure I really had a hero growing up. If anything, it changed every year or so with the books I'd read during that time.
Since I studied him in 2005, however, my hero might be Oskar Schlemmer, who ran the second iteration of the theater workshop at the Bauhaus school (Weimar & Dessau). He was a force in the school's thought that preserved the idea of "man, as the measure of all things," to the point of including the history of philosophy in his later life drawing classes. Yet, his heroism came when the Nat'l Socialists removed and destroyed a set of murals he'd made for a museum, that were declared communist, "degenerate" art. Among his writings is the letter he wrote to the authorities, in which he logically argued that the principles of non-objective art were the product of ideas that predated the First World War and had nothing at their source relating to the ties of which this art was accused.
It didn't help, of course. But the mind and balls required to put himself on the line to rationally reason with his accusers, for art!
That and The Triadic Ballet is something else.
Edited at 2010-03-04 04:32 pm (UTC)
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