When I saw how much effort families put in to their ofrendas for Dia de los Muertos in Mexico City it made me start to think about what my family would put onto an altar should (or more, when) I pass away.
Despite seemingly having lots of hobbies, friends and things I like to do, this was a hard one to answer. I couldn’t think what my family would choose as symbols of my absolute favourite things in life. And if they did, would they all be correct? Would I agree with their choices?
I suppose this all boils down to the age-old question of how well the people in your life really know you. And how well you actually know yourself.
Because I couldn’t immediately think of things, I worried – do I actually know myself at all, or am I still in a self-discovery phase in my life where so much is changing that the concept of “me” is pretty fluid?
And then I realised that whenever I have heard people describe me, they have always described things about my personality, as opposed to things I like to do. And I don’t mind that. I love being social. I love finding out about other peoples’ lives (hence why I stalk all of your lovely blogs!) and a lot of what I do and enjoy in life boils down to this. I have enjoyed many fad phases of participating in sporting and charity events, different hobbies, etc but nothing has ever stuck for ever. Because I get easily bored and I like facing new challenges. And I suppose this is why it is so hard to pinpoint the exact physical items that could sum up my life. I like to think it’s because I’m constantly evolving, but the truth is probably that I just can’t stick at anything for long enough for it to become a defining point of my life.
So I will simply list the things that define who I am RIGHT NOW. At this moment in time. This isn’t to say that this is what will define my life in 5, 10 or 20 years time. But this is me, right now.
A pair of headphones – Because sometimes I am happiest when I am listening to my music (singing optional).
A bottle of vodka – This is always my go-to drink. I will drink anything and everything, but you can’t beat a vodka, lime and soda hangover over all of the others.
A fictional book and a guidebook – This one is simple: I love to read and I love to travel
Food – To say I love food would be an understatement. Food is my life (and yes, I know, it’s everyones’ life, duh) but I mean in the fact that I anticipate my meals, I love planning what or where I’m going to eat and my day can be made or ruined by a good or bad meal. So basically, any kind of tasty food/cake/chocolate would suffice here. I’m dead at this point, so anything would look tasty. Although if I could make any preference, some fish and chips, a curry, Chinese food or pasta would be great. See, told you I wasn’t fussy.
A ticket stub for a comedy gig – I love comedy. I love making people laugh and laughing in return. I love watching live comedy and films that make me belly laugh.
DVDs – I love watching movies.
A Christmas bauble – As unusual as this one may sound, I have always loved Christmas. It is my favourite time of year and thus should probably be represented somewhere on my ofrenda.
What surprises me most is that this list would have looked so different 5 years ago. But that is also what I love about it.
And now maybe we should take a look at how it’s really done, after years of perfecting the art of honouring the dead, here are some of the great ofrendas we saw as we were wandering around Mexico City.
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