The Spirit in the House Our home in South Bay dates back to circa 1820°s , built and settled by an United Empire Loyalist. According to the records found at the County Records office, in the 1860°s the family of Mary and Gilbert Lazier , the well respected potter owned and lived in this house. The most recent owner-occupant of this house was Mr. Harold Willard Mouck. a well known local fisherman-farmer . We pur- chased the house from his son John Mouck. Over the intervening 185 plus years the house has changed from a small building to a much larger size. The innards have been gutted and changed many times, al- though some of the original stone foundations remain to this day. On our purchase the house was expanded to re- place the summer kitchen with a garage and a wrap- around porch was added. The interior plumbing, electrical system and walls were put in to replace the old. The con- tinuous work and changes and regular maintenance have kept this building alive and well. There are still many cen- tury buildings in the County but many more have fallen into rubble or have completely disappeared. One not far from our house still stands but it is now beyond repair. Human beings like houses do live a long time, not as old as our house. Again like houses, we require constant repair "and maintenance. We sometimes like occupants of a house abuse the interior by smoking, drinking too much or filling it up beyond its capacity. The body like the house cannot withstand the pressure and collapses and dies. The house or a human body may dissipate and fade away but the spirit or as some would call it the soul lives on. The human body unlike a house cannot withstand a great amount of intervention: it reacts by systemic failure and tends to shut down. I watched a number of people who had undergone surgery and although the intervention itself was success- fully carried out the body itself fell apart and died. This year I have reached the ripe age of 76. Little by little parts of my body are falling victim to the long life: arthri- tis of the joints, heart beating hard after an uphill climb, fatigue after a short work in the garden and like many men cancer of the prostate. For each of these signs of aging , the medical specialists, alternate therapists and myriad other caregivers, some in it for the money alone are there to advise, poison, burn and excise out one or more of the troubled parts of the house of the spirit. For three years I have troubled and worried over the slowly growing lump in the groin. My medical advisors are now on the brink of ordering me to irradiate it or take hormone therapy to quell the little bugger inside me. As the cartoon joke in the New Yorker magazine illustrated a man pointing to his wife - cut out the prosecution and lets hear the sentenc- ing . We do not want to hear the sentencing but in truth it is death. We must all die sooner or later: that is the house must go but never the spirit or the real I will continue to live on. I am now on the verge of being able to look into the house and admit that it is slowly decaying and cannot withstand serious intervention. The medical profession may be able to radiate the prostate but the collateral damage as in war will cause untold misery to the countryside (body) .In time 1 will be able to detach my spirit from the housing and feel happy to let my house collapse. The house after all was merely a parking spot to let me live the life of joy, love , pain , happiness, sadness and all the emotions of a spent life. Like all humans I had my ups, my downs, my regrets, my successes, my lovers, my hopes, my dreams and un- told human others who have made me what and who Iam in this house. When a house goes down into dust we merely pass it by and regretfully say a fond farewell . So it must be with hu- mans. It is after all just the structure that went down: the spirit has found another place, another house to park and experience a new life. Krishna, a famous Hindu sage pointed out in the Bhagavad Gita that the greatest fear of mankind is death. Do not fret he said : after the death of the body , you pass to another body. Unfortunately, death does not end with ones body dying but those left behind experience a terrible loss and grief. Increasingly in the West we are seeing more and more people celebrating instead of mourning a death. The dead person has gone on into another life and we who are left behind should remember and celebrate the span of life be it short, before his or her time or completely unex- pected. Laugh at the idiotic antics, recall the goodness of the person or even the downfall as these are the stuff of the person during his or her passage of life in this house. - Ken Koyama