Death in Revolution
Being the change isn’t always good.
Everyone you care about is either dead or will be. It’s only after they perish that we offer them celebrations — or “flowers.” Their life’s actions must be fully played out before we, as humans, begin to care or feel qualified to. Death, however gruesome it may seem, isn’t the question here — it’s the answer.
Descending from fixed notions of the “moment of rest,” one strives to realize its automatic correspondences — most aptly: eternal, unflinching, and forever. And in its foreverness, one remains animated. Through the mental landscape of family generations, monolithic names ring out like cannons of celebration. Works of art preserve the dead and the dying — not merely through image, but through the creator alone, they hold life beyond death.
But what of worth — and worthiness? An artist’s paintings in life pale in comparison to those valued after death has claimed him. The answer, it seems, is this: to die in order to live forever.
Dying is Living Life
How one dies is how one lives.
“Live fully” is an axiom that resonates with millions — though it is often misunderstood and foolishly misinterpreted. At its core, this phrase is meant to echo the symbolism of another timeless truth: “A life well lived is a precious gift.”
To expound further: everything is temporary, except for the decisions we make. The day-to-day operations of life are the most poignant part of this equation — small actions that, over time, accumulate and manifest as gains.
“Each instant of life is a step toward death.” — Pierre Corneille
Progress can only be truly understood by the sound of age behind it. A vivid example of this is found in providing for a family — a process that requires the sacrifice, even the symbolic death, of one’s former self in order to sustain and maintain the family dynamic. The return for this transmutation of life force is love and care, offered by those who benefit from the sacrifice.
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Such a principle can — and should — be applied to everyday life.
Trading what you love for the time you have on Earth can be seen as a noble and upright expenditure of life-energy.
Let’s illustrate the example of candy emitting a soothing tide of relaxation — tied to a fleeting feeling of exuberance. Yet, if I continue to indulge in that sweetness, it will bring rot and ruin to my body. Loving this pleasure unto death invites the death that is deserved.
This, in essence, is dying for a feeling, rather than maintaining the trajectory that defines a meaningful lifestyle.
Death’s Embrace
A warmth — calculated into terror soon after.
Death’s willingness to be described as holding us in pure bliss and whisking us into the next life speaks volumes about how enamored humans are with the concept of dying.
Yet, contrasting images exist:
Nine-foot, aery phantoms that suck the soul from your already-decrepit body, releasing it into the portal of Hades.
Regardless of the imagery, the embrace of the final breath is inherently dramatic.
The finale — the performance — of death comes to us without regard for personal filters. It is grimy, peaceful, final, and strangely soothing.
Death is everything life contains — without interruption.
It shows life, mimics it, takes it, and reviews it.
Death is, in truth, the final act of life.
So, here and now:
Embrace death in all its forms, so that you, too, may live a very, very full life.
Stay Mysterious y’all!
