Sometimes it isn't all about Me

I know, I find it difficult to believe as well. After all, I'm the most important person to me, so why shouldn't my life focus on me? And more importantly, why shouldn't everyone else's life focus on me? I guess this is one of those "pronoun trouble" questions Daffy and Bugs eternally debate about:

Elmer: Should I shoot him now or wait 'til I get home?
Daffy: Shoot him now! Shoot him now!
Bugs: You be quiet, he doesn't have to shoot you now.
Daffy: Well, I say he DOES have to shoot me now...so shoot me now!
[BANG]
Daffy: Let's try that again.
Bugs: Okay.
Daffy: Shoot him now, shoot him now.
Bugs: You be quiet, he doesn't have to shoot you now.
Daffy: AH HA! Pronoun trouble. It's not, "He doesn't have to shoot YOU now, it's he doesn't have to shoot ME now." But I say he does have to shoot me now! So shoot me now!
[BANG]

The lesson I take away from this is that I will end up being shot by a cartoon hunter for my vanity. So I've taken the lesson to heart and admit that sometimes it isn't all about Me.

(Admitting you have a problem is the first step.)

But back to the question at hand...

I got to work a little early this morning, so I took advantage of the few minutes of solitude and quiet to read the headlines of the NY Times online.

Hmmm...what have we got here? "Early Warning on Foley Cited by Former Aide." Boring. "City Considers Plan to Let Outsiders Run Schools." That's ridiculous. This outsourcing nonsense is really getting out of hand. Note to Self: read that article later. Ooh...what's this?! "Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives." *

SHUT UP!!!

This is an A-number 1 primo click-thru bit of tastiness!

What we have here is a...quaint...tradition known as tradition known as "minghun" or "afterlife marriage." The people who spent years in school learning things from books that they should have learned out in the field speculate that the practice is rooted in the Chinese tradition of ancestor worship, which holds that people continue to exist after death and that the living are obligated to tend to their wants. Apparently an unmarried life is incomplete, which is why there is concern that an unmarried son may be an unhappy one.

Generally, the "wife" will be the recently deceased daughter of some grieving family, and they can go for a tidy sum...typically costing more than US$1,200...almost four years of income for the average farmer.

As one of my favorite lines in "Psycho" proclaims, "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy away an awful lot of unhappiness!"

"Charming" little sidenotes:

(1) in some villages, a son is eligible for such a spouse if he is 12 or older when he dies

(2) "For girls, it doesn't matter about their minds, whether they are an idiot or not. They are still wanted as brides. Dead or alive."

(3) "A woman does not belong to her parents. She must marry and have children of her own before she has a place among her husband's lineage. A woman who dies unmarried has no place in this world."

(4) Minghun doesn't require that the bride also be dead. Living brides are sometimes purchased as well. (No indication of how that plays if the "widow" wants to marry someone else at some point down the road.)I actually find the whole concept more fascinating than macabre, but there is a little bit of that creepy deepy thing going on. Of course, seeing as how I haven't dated anyone in over a year, maybe I shouldn't be critical. Minghun may be the way I get my next husband.I'll tell Mom to start saving up.

* (that link will probably only work for a few days, but I'd be happy to send you a PDF. E-mail me at melody1204@mymelody.com)