Today I received a message from a stranger who was searching for my Aunt. My aunt has the same name as I do. She's technically my "first cousin once removed" if we're talking about it in American/English terms. Our common ancestor is my great grandfather, and my grandfather is her uncle. In my culture however, she would be considered an Aunt. But yes we share the same first and last name, the only difference is our second names as we both have double first names. Double names are very common in my culture. She unfortunately passed in 2018 from an accident. I met her only once or twice and it was in those big Christmas parties where every family member got invited. Those Christmas parties were back when I was in high school in early 2010's.
She was apparently a very talented musician. I didn't know this about her as she's technically a stranger to me. She played the piano and sang. The stranger who hit me up was asking if "I" had any CD's from her band back in 2002. I was eight years old in 2002 so I figured that he was probably thinking about my aunt, and thats when I was reminded about her death. I searched her up and found her band, her music and her obituary. She played jazz and I think I would have loved to known her better. She had a wonderful singing voice. I thanked him for listening to her music.
I'm reminded again about mortality and the possibilities of persisting despite one's own death. In my aunt's case it's her music, her fans, and the people she touched. In this day and age it's probably easier to persist more than ever, as you can have photos and videos of you at your social media. After all, you only live as long as the last person who remembers you. And if thats the case I do have my youtube channel and this diary to continue to allow me to persist even after my own death. I would be a digital ghost. I wonder if in the future we could persist even better through AI. Have a machine absorb every facet of me that I left online from these pages, my videos, and my voice and have it continue to write, live and exist as me.
It's a fascinating thought bought upon my late Aunt who shared my name, and how she herself is a digital ghost.
Thanks for reading
- A.A.M
View User's Journal
My Book
I've been writing in this since I was thirteen in 2007. I still am writing in it, and it will probably be my legacy till the day I die. (Don't start reading from the beginning as my writing was atrocious then.)
 |
