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| Half dead? |
I was thinking about death the other day. I don’t remember
what got me started on that macabre topic, but I ended up there anyway. So let’s
talk about death for just a minute.
Death is inevitable for living things.* It is unavoidable.
You could argue that all of life, everything you do, is just another step toward
your death. All that sings and smiles and laughs and grows and fights and
bleeds and dances and breathes will die. Cease to be on this earth. End.
Which raises the question: If everything we do ends in
death, is it worth doing anything? That question has spawned all sorts of
interesting philosophies over the years from nihilism (nothing matters so let’s
mope) to hedonism (nothing matters so I’m going to get totally wasted right
now). Implicit in that question is the idea that permanence is equivalent to
value, and impermanent things are inherently less valuable than permanent ones.
And that’s… silly.
Imagine you’re in a dark room. Now imagine a Zippo flicking
to life. See the sparks fly off the flint and catch the fuel on the wick on
fire. That flame, that small source of light and heat, illuminates the world
around it. It gives shape and definition to the void. It gives heat. It is
beautiful as it dances, as it burns, as it dies. The flame, that ephemeral
thing that was not and now is and soon will not be, is useful.
Life is like that. Life is an opportunity to shed light on
the true nature of the universe. It is an opportunity to share warmth and light
and love. And even though it is fleeting, even though it ends, it’s existence
matters. Because without it, without those flames burning in the vast darkness,
flicking into and out of existence, all that would be left is darkness.
And now the impermanence of life becomes a challenge rather
than a curse. How much light can we give while we’re here? How much heat? How
far can we push back the shadows while we burn, while we live? The length of time we're here is less important than what we do with the time we have. After all, the sparks that light the Zippo exist for only a fraction of a second, but the fire won't burn without them.
*In this statement I
am assuming that you won’t be thinking about this blog should the rapture
happen and you get whisked away to eternity while skipping the unpleasantness
of death. We’re going to call that the very rare exception to the rule.
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