Life goes on, at least for the rest of us. The death of someone close to us has an impact, I think, on our inborn sense of immortality. Each death we experience chips away at that irrational sense of forever.
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donne understood it in a way that I only recently began to understand. Each death we experience conspires to inform us that the next death may be our own. We learn from death around us. We learn that our sense of immortality is wrong-headed. We learn that, despite how it feels to us today...life ends, it always ends.
All of this should not be reason for solemnity. It should be reason for celebration. Celebrate what we have. Live it up! Enjoy what life we have! Give other people the joy they, and we, deserve!
Crap, why does this sense of awareness too often emerge only after it's too late for someone? Or, to be more precise, after it's too late for us to express that sense of joy to someone?
Tears flow so easily sometimes. And that needn't be the case. We...I...just need to be better to people we love while they're still here to love.
4 comments:
What happened, my dear? You sound rather sad. I hope everything's alright.
Still adjusting to the death of my mother-in-law earlier in the week. Not that we were terribly close (though we got along just fine), but now the opportunity for interaction is gone. Makes one a bit sad.
I think your response is spot-on, John, to do the most and the best with what we've got left.
Glad to see you posting again.
I often think that society, the media, etc... is promoting the notion that we'll live forever. Commercials for pension plans and investments make it sound like life just begins at 65. You save your money and you too can go mountaineering with your wife when you're 67. Uhm, right.
As a result of several events that have happened in recent years, I tend to think the opposite -- There's no time like the present. Make the memories now and you'll have them to enjoy later when it won't be so easy to climb those mountains or take off on that trip to Peru.
Post a Comment