Counting Lives

My parents are often upset that I do not attend church as regularly as they like. They also find it concerning that when I do, I pay close attention and seem to come home finding things to argue with or complain about. It is true that I also come home finding things to applaud and rhapsodise over but we often focus on the negative.

Anyhoo. Last Saturday, about ten minutes before night service started, I turned to my sister and said: Hey, wanna go attend service? She shrugged and said: Yeah ok. Which is how my other sister found the house empty and probably thought the Rapture had happened and she alone of our family had been Left Behind. She did blast out a lot of texts asking each one of us where we were and what happened and why was the house empty. As for us, we were in church and listening to people sharing their outpourings. Holy. The Rapture should have happened then.

One of the men who shared his thoughts with us said we as Mizo have recently copied white people so much that we keep celebrating birthdays every year. If it is not a milestone, there is no need to single out one day so much. We should be thankful for every second of every day all year round.

After church, my parents were surprised to see me walk out of church. The smurfing duo actually was wide-eyed at the sight of me! We walked out together and I said to wait for me while I go get the car. My brother saw me and the smurfer actually pointed at me and his jaw dropped. The smurfs.

At home, drinking post-church tea, I said, “About tonight’s service...” and of course, everyone braced themselves to my latest observation. Which is this:

I only half-agree with the man. I agree that us Mizo have copied white people too much to the point of suffocating our own culture. I however think it is alright to copy the good parts of white culture, specifically in relation to their work culture and theme of self-independence. I agree with him that we should be thankful for all the time we have. I disagree that only specific Jubilee worthy milestones should be celebrated for the very simple reason that we all need reminders every now and then. We all need breathers. We all need a dedicated time to stand back and reflect on the gifts we have enjoyed.

I don’t think it is essential to celebrate birthdays with cakes and balloons and pork fats. But a reminder to give thanks for all the years that we have accumulated when even a swallow of water down the wrong pipe can kill us is very much on track. We are very mortal, you know. If your existence is a fixed point in time anyway and there’s nothing that can be done about that, having survived a full year is a huge reason to celebrate.

So it was a good observation I think? I didn’t complain. And while it was not a rhapsody, it was a glass half-full half-empty situation. Which

has to be a win.

Also my family gave me gifts on Sunday because I have successfully completed one more cycle around the sun and this is a distinctive achievement I make as well as bestow upon them the gift of me. Some of their gifts were snarky, like my dad who gifted me a container of imli sweets because I steal his own stock of imli sweets every time I am home. But the rest were not snarky. Then again, even the snarky one was tasty so we are good.