• Contact
  • About
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
North East Bylines
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Region
  • Opinion
AUDIO
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Region
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
North East Bylines
Home Region North East

Funeral planning: looking at clouds from both sides…

I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down.

Peter LathanbyPeter Lathan
16-11-2020 16:55 - Updated On 05-04-2022 19:41
in North East, Performance, UK, World News
Reading Time: 5 mins
A A
"I lay awake for hours thinking about my ideal funeral."
Photo by Jason Blackeye via unsplash

"I lay awake for hours thinking about my ideal funeral." Photo by Jason Blackeye via unsplash

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Yesterday I listened, for the first time in a long time, to Joni Mitchell’s wonderful “Both Sides Now”, a song which I’ve always loved.

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

This look at the way people always seem to prefer illusion to reality struck a very vibrant chord with me. That is me! What my imagination makes of clouds (and of love, and of life) is so much better than mundane reality.

Actually, it reminds me of Keats’ Lamia:

There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomèd mine—
Unweave a rainbow…

In a way you might say that they both sum up my experience of life and I thought, “Perhaps I should have ‘Both Sides Now’ played at my funeral?”

No, that’s not morbid or unhealthy. I’m at the age when you think of these things. After all, the average life expectancy of a male in the UK is about 80/81 and I’m 77, so do the maths!

I’d already decided that one song I want playing at my funeral is The Parting Glass. I even thought of recording it myself and having that recording played. A friend of mine flung up her hands in horror. “Don’t you dare!” she said, but I make no promises…

I lay awake for hours thinking about my ideal funeral. How odd does that seem? Ideal funeral.

But in fact that’s not so odd at all. How many funerals have you been to where we are told that we are here to celebrate the life of (whoever) and we end up sitting in a sea of black while a succession of people drone on:

“X was a great fan of Wherever United and never missed a home game.”
“X loved listening to…”
“X love having a laugh.” (Said she/he with profound gloominess).

And so on, and so on. And, yet again, so on.

I remember after a rehearsal of my production of Cold in the Clay for The Customs House, John, a cast member, and I were the only ones left in the room. I was locking up and John was collecting his stuff together and for some reason – and to this day I don’t know why – we started to sing “Bread of Heaven.” We sang the whole hymn full blast, filling the room with our voices, and we were loving it! It’s such a good sing!

As I lay in bed, I wondered, “Why don’t people sing like that at funerals?” Did I really need to ask that question? It’s obvious; funerals are solemn occasions so people constrain and restrain themselves.

Then I remembered that, years ago, we did a show about workplace stress for a conference in Manchester and we ended it with the four cast members dancing and singing “Always look on the bright side of life.” After the show I said to the company, “When I pop my clogs I want you to lead the congregation out of the Crem singing that” but last night I had an even better idea.

Oh yes I did!

Why not, I thought, project the words on a screen and treat it like the community song at the end of a panto? There could even be a competition to see which side could sing the loudest!

And perhaps a bit of Shakespeare:

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Let’s make it a theatrical funeral with one of the fantastic female singers I know starting it off with “Both Sides Now” and ending, if I’m not allowed to do it, with “The Parting Glass” sung by a male singer – with Irish accent, please – and in between a veritable cornucopia of joyful theatricality, for “may there be no moaning of the bar, when I put out to sea!”

It’s a lovely vision to set against the monotonous sameness of interminable isolation.

And that, my friends, is so bloody weird! The image of a joyful funeral to brighten up everyday life… Ah, 2020. What a year you have been!

Tags: Culture
Previous Post

Resisting the far right in the North East

Next Post

Escaping the plague in the ‘otherworld’: a journey to Skye

Peter Lathan

Peter Lathan

Peter Lathan first appeared on stage in a school play at the age of 13 in 1956 when he played Marion in Sean O’Casey’s Cock-a-Doodle-Dandy. He first directed a play – Chekhov’s The Anniversary – in 1966. He has been involved in theatre ever since. He has taught Drama in schools, youth theatres and stage schools, whilst also running drama classes for recovering addicts and adults with severe learning disabilities. He has written more than 35 plays and directed over 70 from site-specific Shakespeare to touring pantos, from new writing to classic plays, from Theatre in Education to corporate productions. He is the author of It’s Behind You: The Story of Panto. He has been, variously, artistic director of theatre company KG Productions (2000 – 2016), chairman of the board of the Wearabout Theatre Company of Sunderland, and a Trustee of the Customs House in South Shields (9 years) and of No Limits Theatre Company, a professional company for adults with a learning disability In 2001 he founded the online British Theatre Guide which he edited for 11 years. He remains its North East editor.

Related Posts

Gaza Oct 23
Opinion

Gaza’s statistics of death

byDavid Keys
December 7, 2023
Margaret Thatcher
North East

In praise of Thatcher: has Starmer gone too far?

byJulia Mazza
December 5, 2023
Margaret Thatcher
North East

Keir Starmer’s praise of Margaret Thatcher

byChris Wade
December 4, 2023
Transpennine train
North East

Government announces £3.9bn Transpennine rail improvements

byPeter Morris
December 4, 2023
child's eyes
North East

New data reveals 1 in 8 North East children now hit by ‘cruel’ two-child limit

byNorth East Bylines
December 4, 2023
Next Post
The old man of Storr, Skye 
Photo by Robin Tudge

Escaping the plague in the ‘otherworld’: a journey to Skye

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CROWDFUNDER

Subscribe to our newsletters
CHOOSE YOUR NEWS
Follow us on social media
CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS
Download our app
ALL OF BYLINES IN ONE PLACE
Subscribe to our gazette
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY
Make a monthly or one-off donation
DONATE NOW
Help us with our hosting costs
SIGN UP TO SITEGROUND
We are always looking for citizen journalists
WRITE FOR US
Volunteer as an editor, in a technical role, or on social media
VOLUNTEER FOR US
Something else?
GET IN TOUCH
Previous slide
Next slide

LATEST

Conservative logo on Union flag

Immigration policy: how the party of family values truly values your family

December 8, 2023
Newcastle Civic Centre 

Newcastle City Council unveils youth justice plan

December 8, 2023
Riders on the storm by author Alastair McIntosh

Book Review: Riders on the Storm by Alastair McIntosh

December 7, 2023
The word humanity

Remember the call

December 7, 2023
Gaza Oct 23

Gaza’s statistics of death

December 7, 2023
hands holding candle

75 years since Universal Declaration of Human Rights: celebration at Sunderland Minster

December 6, 2023

MOST READ

David Lammy

Lammy’s mood music – sidestepping towards Rejoin?

December 2, 2023
Margaret Thatcher

In praise of Thatcher: has Starmer gone too far?

December 5, 2023
Gaza Oct 23

Gaza’s statistics of death

December 7, 2023
Polling station

Proportional Representation vs First Past the Post

November 6, 2022 - Updated On May 23, 2023

BROWSE BY TAGS

Audio Beach Brexit Business castle leazes climate activism Co. Durham comedy cost of living crisis Culture defra democracy ducklings Economy Education Environment fire and rescue firefighter Food & Drink food poverty hardwick festival Health Health & Care Home Affairs just stop oil Lifestyle Local Lockdown Northumberland Peace peoples theatre Performance Politics pride month refugee rescue Science Teesside the good life TV & Radio Tynemouth Tyneside Ukraine volunteer Wearside

We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in the North East and beyond.

North East Bylines is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a partner organisation to Byline Times.

Learn more about us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Authors
  • Complaints
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Letters
  • Privacy
  • Network Map
  • Network RSS Feeds
  • Submission Guidelines

© 2023 North East Bylines. Powerful Citizen Journalism

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • UK News
    • Transport
    • World News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Poetry
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
  • Donate
  • Newsletter sign up
  • Boriiis Cartoons
  • Authors
  • Audio
CROWDFUNDER

© 2023 North East Bylines. Powerful Citizen Journalism

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In