Death and Respect

This might sound odd to some, but I don't think that someone, who was horrid in life, should get a pass because he or she kicked the bucket.

Recently, between international news (and the obituary of some "prominent" biped) and the news of a death in the family, I find myself wondering why some people think that all dead bipeds deserve some respect after death.

In comments sections I've read that one should "wait until he's cold" (out of respect for the departed biped) or "show respect to the dead".

In my family, I heard that "the dead should be allowed to rest in peace".

No.

I disagree.

If someone was nasty, petty, always negative, manipulative, disrespectful, odious, generally unpleasant, and mostly a pitiful excuse of a "human being", I refuse to be nice because it died.

Any public figure who was abusive deserves no respect - not when it was alive, not when it's six feet under (should I start respecting Franco just because he's dead? Nope. Same rule applies to all nasty bipeds in my book).

The same goes for any unpleasant relative of mine. I'll ignore them in life, and I'll loathe them in death. I'll point at Rule #2 and #5.

Right now, I have two relatives who want to leave the dead alone. They're nicer than I am (perhaps because I can never forget, and I very seldom forgive; I remember what horrible people did). I can't have empathy for negative bipeds (then again, I never pretended to be perfect either, and I can't forget that some dead bipeds are back to nothingness whilst their victims are left to suffer until their last breaths - that's when the atheist in me regrets that there's nothing after death, coz some bipeds would really deserve to be barbecued in hell for all eternity).

Judging the Book by Its Cover

How I love that most people keep saying  "don't judge a book by its cover", but nearly everybody judges the "book" by its cover in real life.

I see it all the time.

Exhibit A: my own life.

I'm not an adult "ugly duckling", but I'm insignificant enough to have most people just ignore me. I'm somehow invisible.

I see handsome blokes and pretty gals being noticed whilst I could be under some Invisibility cloak.

I'm not jealous (for the most excellent reason that I don't give a fig), but that shows me for certain that appearances is what most people pay attention to. They don't care about the contents of the "book"; they look at the cover and decide that the pretty ones are the ones worth investigating.

This is just an observation and a statement.

Exhibit B: my hair.

I'm not an old lady, but... my DNA decided that it would be a good idea to start turning my hair white.

And so... I've had retired people offer me their seats on the bus (okay... I may look a tad tired, but my two main wrinkles are laugh lines; they must be looking at my hair and jump to conclusion).

Exhibit C: my old jacket.

Yes, it's old. It does look old, but it's clean... but it does look old, and Mother advised me to not go to work with that rag as I could risk having people giving me money to buy a new one.

I don't care about the way it looks because I firmly believe that appearances are not important.

Some people will stop at my not-pretty face, my almost white hair, and my ancient jacket (I'm still not giving a fig).

I believe that what's in my brain and my heart is more important than the way I look. Then again, I always open the books I "meet".