Jing-reed's Musings from Thailand

Pokkuri - ぽっくり

 

Many years ago my grandmother, who lived in Nové Zámky, Slovakia peacefully died in her favorite armchair.  Seems that she was doing a bit of afternoon reading, nodded off and never woke up.  She had never had a major illness, nor had she ever spent any time in a hospital.  That was more than forty years ago and it has taken me all these years to discover that she died of/with 'pokkuri'.  'Pokkuri' [ ぽっくり ] is a unique Japanese word/concept of dying peacefully in your sleep, just quietly passing into oblivion .  No muss, no fuss, just 'popping off'. .  I guess even a heart attack might count as 'pokkuri', if of course it were quick enough.  

In Japan there are several temples to this kami, or god, of 'pokkuri'.  The large Kichidenji Temple  is outside Nara, and has a steady stream of visitors requesting a final gift of 'pokkuri'.  I wonder why the English speaking world doesn't  have a nice word/concept like 'pokkuri'?

Marijuana Use By Seniors

 

Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age

"Pot-smoking among 55- to 59-year-olds has more than tripled since 2002

In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.....

Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.

"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.

Politically, advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long push to change the laws. ...."