Hello,
I am in an extremely depressed mood, and I should probably explain why. My friend who is always tired has just explained why. His girlfriend who he clearly loves is dying of Leukemia. Only two years left to live. It took my breath away when I heard this. I thought about death in a way which I have never before.
Before I had always thought death to be miraculous or powerful, a great beginning to the afterlife. As such, when characters die in the novel people care, but it is soon forgotten. I realised this is wrong. Death is not powerful or beautiful, it's just the end, the end of all things. One moment a person is alive and the next they are not. It's nothing more than that. It is not a bang, but a whimper. A quiet moment of the removal of life, not some powerful Universe saving action.
People die everyday but we move on. When we watch the news and hear about a car accident, it is barely likely to register and by the following day we have forgotten it. We do not grieve or feel pain, it's just old news. But it's not, to the family and those close to the person their pain goes on and it will never, ever end. Because that is the nature of death.
Rarely, do we get the chance to farewell the person who is no longer with us. We always assume that we'll do it the next time, or the time after. But that never comes and soon we are left wishing and hoping that we had had the chance to farewell the person that meant so much to us.
How are lives bearable? We are born with the knowledge that one day life will cease, but we forget it and push it away to the back of our mind, safe in the hope that there will always be tomorrow. That is until the day when someone close to us stops and we are forced to confront our greatest fear; that one day the same thing will happen to us.
We can but hope to make an impact upon the world, because we shall not be remembered. The memory of us shall fade away and we shall be no more. Even if we do make an impact, we will still be forgotten. How many names shall be remembered in twenty years time? Is it fair that George Bush or Hugh Heffner are more likely to be remembered than a man who changes lives, saves them?
There must be more, there has to be. That is why religion is so popular, because it gives us hope that are friends and one day, us, will live on. Because otherwise life is not bearable, and we create our own destiny and are forgotten.
Thanks,
James
