We are, as individuals and as a society, very reluctant to talk about endings where there is no beginning elsewhere. And death is an ending with no assured beginning. Our personal beliefs may consign us to an afterlife or to rebirth or to oblivion, but nobody is sure. And so, we don't talk about Bruno...uh, about death at all in our society.
But all things die. We know that, as permaculturists. Sometimes they just grow old and find the end of their time. Sometimes they're cut down in the prime of life. Sometimes it's an illness that takes health away and life thereafter. Sometimes there's no reason that we can tell. (And sometimes we deliberately cull things, ending their life sooner, for the good of the whole garden; but that's not ideal when it comes to human beings.)
I've been thinking about death and succession myself lately.
Maybe it's the "doom and gloom" of the science: extreme weather conditions, climate warming, COVID recurrences and mutations, the polarisation of society through social media discourse, the growing gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots', and all the pushback by the people who just want things to go back to "normal".
"Normal" was a crust of thin ice over the cold and treacherous waters of existence, and climate warming means it's growing thinner. Those of us reading this started life off on a glacier we thought would be here forever.
Well, we were wrong.
Change is here.
Personal family changes are making me contemplate the future. My parents (all three of them) are old, stable and able to look after themselves still, preparing for the future, yes, but still, old. My sisters both have COVID this last week and the sister I live with isn't doing so well. It's not hospitalisation level yet, but her health has never been great. Thus far I've avoided it, and I hope to continue to do so.
Two brothers (one half-, one step-) have had children, and both seem intent on cultivating us as family. My dad's stepfam wants to immigrate from Vietnam to Australia as soon as his MIL dies; and my half-brother (via Dad) in HK is looking to come to Australia b/c things in HK are looking iffy.
I don't know how to tell them that things in Australia are looking iffy, too. That they're better off in the long-term buying a house with land in a community than going for an apartment like they have in HCMC and HK city. That our democracy might only last a decade more before it takes on the tinge of an authoritarian democracy (it'll take less time if the conservatives get in this weekend).
Right now, my sister and I are the only ones who own land in our family. And it's not much: One-sixth of an acre, but fertile and in a community of fractional acreage with houses that are decent if not well-built. There's space for gardens and for rethinking the way we live. But with everything going on right now, I'm not thinking about an exit plan so much as a succession plan: that is, what happens if things go downhill as badly as they're predicted to over the next thirty years of my life?
I've been wondering if we could persuade my father and/or my half-brother to move in here: a house rebuild and restructure would give us a little more space, and better use of the space (less waste with storage) would allow us to fit a couple of families in, particularly if they're accustomed to living in close quarters. It's unlikely - both dad's family and the half-bro's family are SE Asian city-dwellers; so that means apartments rather than land. Stepbro and his wife are likely more open to land ownership - she's from a semi-rural background with a medical degree, he's from suburbia like us. But the image they'd have in their head is of one house, one family, not the multigenerational thing they'd imagine. Also, if they had to, they'd probably prefer to move in with her family: they have the farm down south, after all.
Right now, if anything happens to me, then my significant assets are divided between my sisters. The stepbro and halfbro can take a memento or something, with the willingness of the sistren, but they don't get a share in 'the inheritance'.
Thinking about the end times requires thinking about 'after'. There's a story told in the bible about a rich man who put all his riches away and then thought he'd celebrate with what he had. And God tells him, "you're an idiot; tonight, you're going to die, and who will inherit all this?"
Life is always temporary - a little match flame that reaches the end of its fuel and burns out. So today I'm thinking about what happens to my land and my house after I die?
