do we die to be remembered
or
do we die to be forgotten

remember me if i should die
what better way to be remembered?
but to die is to remove our physical (breathing) presence
and years go by and the trace diminishes.
an absence

will you still be who you think you are now?
what will people remember you as?
in 2113, 12,094,179,501 people will die.
statistics?

they are many ways to immortalise yourself:
leave a legacy (up to your interpretation)
write a best-selling book with sequels
convert a nation (never mind the religion)
cut an album (chart-topping)
make a film that stars yourself
okay. just make a film; win an award if you can but if you make a B-grade film, just hope someone like Quentin Tarantino would be interested
be a serial killer, but please be imaginative and original, e.g. choke your victims by stuffing Today newspapers into their throats. (okay...that's dumb)
start a war with the most illogical reason (Bush: Putin, you're gay)
offend gays by saying that
write a blog
okay, no. write a book about blogs.
Youtube. and hope the servers don't crash in 20 years time.
write/direct/produce a play that people continue to re-write/re-direct/re-produce
(it might no longer be about you but them?)
write an abstract, philosophical and passionate manifesto or confessions with an artistic name like The Empty Stage or The Theatre and its double
okay...I doubt that it still works now, so title your manifesto or confessions: The Empty Stage with Asian elements, or The Theatre and its double: An Economic Survey with Geographical concerns.
Name a fast-food chain after your name: Alvin Alfresco
Remind people that your name was named after some well-known person, e.g. Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Bomb yourself and leave clues that lead them to believe that you're from the local dominant political party.
Take lots of your photos and paste them all over the country and the internet (maybe it won't work)
draw a piece of abstract art painting and call it "The Existentialist". (make sure it's completely white). Declare (buy an organiser to do it) it as a work of art.
win the cultural medallion or any equivalent award from your native country and melt it
refuse the nobel prize
accept the nobel prize
bomb the nobel prize, since it follows the founder's tradition.
Keep any newspaper or paraphernalia that has news of you. Laminate or frame them. Keep in a safe vault. Instruct your children to inherit them and to pass them down from generation to generations.
Oh....Have children or followers to carry on your legacy.
Name them not only by your surname, all subsequent children have to retain your full name in their names:
Lim E. H. A. Eng Beng Bushvin Eng Seng Melvin <-- this will be my grandson's name But that is quite sexist... so keep your sperms in sperm banks. Before you know it, this world will have your children you won't even meet. be a president and marry an actress no...be an actor then a president and marry a porn star who goes into politics as well and have a son who will follow your footsteps and name: Lim E. H. A. Eng Beng Bushvin pay for a shrine, altar, tombstone or oil lamp that is valid and untouchable for 200000 years or more. (make sure archaeologists can find you. Leave your name or any form of identification and a test result of your personality, and please remember to preserve them) Live and work 70 years to earn that money to fund that endeavour mummify yourself. Start a religion: Alvinism; make statues and images of yourself to be worshiped at; or declare that you're the incarnation of someone important: I am the incarnation of Charlie Chaplin. Make a movie/documentary, write a book and go on a world tour to prove that. (learn the skill of illusion and magic for the performance of miracles) After which, give motivational talks of your success if you can. Get a street to be named after you. (Lim E. H. A. Cul-de-sac Street) The list is really non-exhaustive. But what intrigues me the most is the fact that we desire to be remembered. of course, there are a few who refuse to be remembered. why didn't Socrates leave any writings or autobiographies? were there more people out there who were forgotten and wanted to be forgotten? living people continue to fascinate me. what troubles me is that I want to find out about them without first understand myself. what troubles me that even those methods would be copied and imitated, repeated and eventually replace the original. I shall perform my death in order to be forgotten. A is for Alvin. Andy. Aaron. Anthony. Alan. Abel. Albert. Alfonso. Abu. Adu. Apollo. Ahmad. Ali. Alex. (the list goes on.) Get an original name: SH 8225578 Enshrine your Identification card. ---------------------------------------------------------------

silently the ripples make their last reverberations , till they end up negating each other. Where was the source? I made my silent attempt to move away, allowing only the surface of me to be presented to you. I cannot penetrate into you. I can echo but the energy cannot last forever. Are you still there if I make my last dash to the finishing line? We dance the Caucus' Race. When it is over, it just is. There is just no more prizes for anyone who participates. Are you done? Can we move on? Yes. I don't like to be remembered. Because it is never the same person: The remembered and the person in perpetual flux.

let him die in peace.
another death is almost complete.