A Memorial Tribute to
Jyoti Shankar
(Transcript)
<Godlessheathen>
I
am officiating this remembrance of Jyoti. We will begin
now.
We are here to remember our friend and fellow GodBuster Jyoti Shankar.
His
death was sudden and unexpected, and we miss him but let us remember
that
Jyoti's influence will be felt as long as we remember him.
We
light our candle today to honor the life and living of Jyoti Shankar.
*
Godlessheathen lights a candle
*
AtheistStar lights a candle
*
DirtyOl`Man lights a candle
<Godlessheathen>
I
would now like to read a quote by Sheldon Kopp: "We all
suffer
some unavoidable losses. People we love die, close friends move away,
and,
despite our best efforts, some of the venture we undertake don't work
out.
What's a person to do when he or she suffers a bad break? We can
complain,
but fussing doesn't change anything.
If
we accept our losses, we grieve by crying about them.
Crying
doesn't help either. that's why we cry - because nothing helps. but
grieving
does allow us to bury our dead and to get beyond our
disappointments.
This
leaves room in our hearts that we may be able to fill
with
love for someone else or hope for some new undertaking, but we cannot
hurry
our pain to rush our willingness to begin anew.
We
need to move on in our lives in search of whatever is
available
that makes us happy, but a major loss leaves a hole in our
hearts
- a hole that can never be completely refilled.
I
would now like to say something in my own words: Jyoti
was
very active in the freethought community, even earning a place on the
Atheist
Celebrity's list. He had his own on-line atheist magazine, Bubbles,
he
was on our GodBusters list, and he was the Vice-Chair to the thwart
list's
EARTHWARD project out of his concern for the many victims of
religiously
motivated violence around the world.
He
was an intelligent and caring person. This is doubly sad
because
we've lost both a friend and another voice of reason amidst all the
irrationality
that surrounds most of us.
"Give
sorrow words. The grief that does not speak Whispers
the
o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break." William Shakespeare
"Macbeth"
It
is now time to share our thoughts.
<DirtyOl`Man>
I
decided long ago that if, on the occasion of my death, my
friends
and relatives were to gather sorrowfully to mourn my death, that I
would
simply refuse to attend. I would much prefer a farewell party to
a
depressing
funeral (even a non-religious one). Of course Jyoti will be
missed,
but I elect to focus on celebrating his life, rather than mourning
his
death; on how we, among others, have benefitted from his presence
rather
than how we will suffer from his absence.
As
you (probably) know, God Busters has existed for just over
a
year. It was my first activist endeavor, and I am pleased that it
has
gone
reasonably well and made some worthwhile contributions to the cause.
Jyoti,
however, has been God Busting since 1964. That would
be
about the time my fourth grade teacher conned me into going to
church.
I
wasted
the next seven years of my life trying to believe the unbelievable.
I
suspect the contributions Jyoti has made in the last 36 years far
outweigh
the
rest of us combined. Here are a few of those contributions: