Oldest person in the world is not thankful ... (not one bit)

I was reading a story today while waiting for my fried egg sandwich ...

Sure, fried egg sandwiches are boring - but boring can be that salve which staves off the pain of existence, the recognition that nothing ... and I mean NOTHING ... really matters all that much. No, I'm not trying to rip off Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", I'm simply making the point that it's likely, probable, that this material existence is just some kind of very intensive game or simulation or we are merely the afterthoughts of some waking child ... waking from a nightmare that is the universe.

No ...

Sorry ... that's too dark.

But I did read this story, about this old woman in Russia, who was about to become the oldest person on Earth. Perhaps not the oldest person that ever lived, but we don't really know. The Bible talks of many old people, in the book of Genesis ... heck, Methuselah lived to be almost 1,000 years old (969 years, to be precise). 128 years is amazing, even if it's not the "all time record".

What was most interesting was the emphasis on the point that, well, Koku Istambulova claimed that she had not enjoyed a single day in her life ... that her life was miserable ... that her memories were of violence, menial and degrading work, communism, a couple of world wars, German tanks (NAZIs) rolling through her village ... yes, she's seen some shit. And maybe that's part of it, or maybe that's just a kind of smoke screen.

I can't read minds, I doubt anyone can (excepting God of course).

I can't read minds, but I believe this woman - and I also believe that she is a good example of how pessimism, negativity, and terrible life experiences can actually lead to a long life ... by necessity, really. No hell is useful if it's a "short timer" hell. Hell needs to be long, the real one is supposedly eternal. Eternal damnation - that's a long hell. But 128 years of damnation ain't no joke.

If she had died, say, during WW1 or the Great Flu Pandemic or the Russian Revolution, or even as late as WW2, then yes - she might have said "this sucked", but it would have sucked less.

She has had the distinguished joy of living through most of the "party" of the last century, but she was never inside the party - and now the "party" is coming to an end, probably. She, Koku, was outside the "dance hall" of modern excess, materialism, stuff you could buy ... she lived among the hyenas, the CHUD, the trog and morlock ... she lived in the wilderness of busted hope, the dark zones, places whispered of, regions avoided if possible.

All that Western, fun-loving, fast-living, care-free lifestyle ...

All that technology and 60's sexual rebellion and Rock&Roll ... and drug use ... don't forget the drug use.

Our dear, lovely, Koku did not get a slice of that "special cake" - she missed the celebration, and lived through the shadow-hell on the periphery.

And now that we are nearing collapse, of the Western order, perhaps the modern world, she's left with nothing ...

And so she's miserable ...

(and there's really no moral to this, except life can be miserable and perhaps misery leads to a long life)

(the end)