So I'm on my way home from my evening visit with my mother, who just turned 94. For a person that age, she could be doing a lot worse. I'm driving along, and I think, Yeah, she's doing OK, but the fact is, she's dying. A few months, maybe a year -- two at the outside -- and she'll be gone. And then I think, You could say that about a lot of people at that old folks' home she lives at. There are a lot of folks there who are dying. There's probably quite a few people in this town who are dying. All over the world, when you get right down to it, there are a lot of people who are dying.
And then I think: Yes, but, at the same time, all over the world, right now, there are a lot of people being born. There are new lives, beginning.
That's how it is, all the time. All the time, all over the world, there are people dying. And at the same time, there are people being born. That's what is going on. Old lives ending, and new lives beginning. All the time.
I don't know how all that looks to anyone else. Under more normal circumstances, I would probably see it as obvious, maybe even -- sad to say -- as trivial. But right now, I look at it, and I see something wonderful, and awesome, and maybe a little terrifying. I came home, and I told my wife what I had been thinking, and I swear, while I was talking, my hair stood on end, and I almost choked up.
And I think that's all I know how to say about it, right now.
Most people push contemplation of mortality away as fast & hard as they can. But thinking on it every now & then I believe is good for the spirit... it helps keep things in perspective with the Big Picture.
ReplyDeleteMy mom is 85, I'm 53, my granddaughter 16 - I think about it often, slip-slidin' away.
Hi Trish -- thanks for the comment. I think I understand what you are saying about mortality. But the thing I was trying to express, in my poor way, was that mortality is only half the picture. The other half is -- what? -- generation? creation? While some things are slip-slidin' away, other things are slip-slidin' in. Always, continually. I still say that is just awesome -- in the old, pre-slang sense of the word.
ReplyDeleteAnyway -- thanks again. Hope all is well with you.