Live like we're dying

So one of the things I had to do while home at Christmas break was to bring home the obutsudan I had built for Great Grandma about three or four years ago. By the time Grandpa Kobata and I had built her obutsudan, we had experience building two small obustudans and three big obutsudans. So perhaps being the most experienced obutsudan building in Sacramento at the time, we put all our expertise into building Great Grandma's great obutsudan. It was the biggest and fanciest one we have ever built. Originally, I took it to her house in the old Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera we had. It barely fit through the door. Neither our current Tercel or Corolla has doors that big, so we had to put into dad's truck. That's how big it is. The next huge question, after getting it home was, where was it going to go in our house. I barely found room in my bedroom.

Yes, as you can see, it is bigger than my bedroom tv...about 3 times bigger! I've saved alittle money from my Christmas and graduation presents to buy the accessories, or butsugu, (candle holder, incense, the two other scrolls, etc) for it. And since the BCA Bookstore has a good user friendly online store, I'll probably be trying that out. (And speaking of that, I was checking out obutsudans on there, and from what I recall, it seems like they have gone up in price by a couple hundred dollars from when I originally started thing of buying/building one!)

Tidbit by Thomas: No, I'm not a die hard American Idol fan. In fact I could not even tell you who won the last few seasons. But I do love watching the first few weeks when they show the try outs. Mainly, I watch for a good laugh.

But apparently Kris Allen, according to Wikipedia, won last years competition. His song, "Live Like We're Dying," is a hit across the country. Not only does it have a great tune, but also a great message, that I have often ruminated on in blogs: appreciate and live each moment appropriately, for you don't get it back. If I didn't know any better, I would have called Kris Allen a Buddhist. Below are the music video and lyrics...

The music video

The lyrics:
Sometimes we fall down and can't get back up
we're hiding behind skin that's too tough
how come we don't say I love you enough
till it's to late, it's not too late

Our hearts are hungry for a food that won't come
we could make a feast from these crumbs
and we're all staring down the barrel of a gun
so if your life flashed before you
what would you wish you would've done

Yeah... gotta start
lookin at the hand of the time we've been given here
this is all we got and we gotta start pickin it
every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
gotta live like we're dying

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying

And if your plane fell out of the skies
who would you call with your last goodbyes
should be so careful who we live out our lives
so when we long for absolution
there'll no one on the line

Yeah... gotta start
lookin at the hand of the time we've been given here
this is all we got and we gotta start pickin it
every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
gotta live like we're dying


We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying

Like we're dying oh-- like we're dying [x2]

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live -- like we're dying

We never know a good thing till it's gone
you never see a crash until it's head on
all those people right when we're dead wrong
you never know a good thing till it's gone

Yeah... gotta start
lookin at the hand of the time we've been given here
this is all we got and we gotta start livin it
every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
gotta live like we're dying

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying

Like we're dying oh -- like we're dying [x2]

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying
live like we're dying