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Beauty and loss
Death is a mystery that we walk towards. A contract of being human, our life is defined by the two bookends, our birth and our death. And that is a beautiful contract.
Modern American culture focuses our attention on the surface of things and the outer appearance to determine what is real and what is of value. The love of youth and the physical attributes of beauty define our understanding of what beauty is. This is why I loved the Barbie movie so much. It parodied our culture's obsession of this definition of beauty and then broke that bubble when Barbie, to the shock and horror of all the Barbie and Kens in Barbie world, revealed that she was thinking of death. If you haven't seen the movie (and this is no spoiler) Barbie is at the ultimate dance party with all of her other Barbie friends, and brings the dance floor to a screeching halt when she says "do you guys think about dying?" This scene perfectly summed up for me our culture's obsession with always being youthful, beautiful, productive and positive, and to please, never mention death.
What we exclude from our world when death and old age are disregarded as a force, is beauty. Beauty can emerge through our capacity to meet death on its terms. If death comes in the form of old age, we are blessed with the opportunity to witness the shedding, as it were, of the physical components of the body, as the soul prepares for death. Other times death comes way too early, taking those that have just started their life. Accidents, wars, disease, murders, suicides. Death visits in many forms. We have all experienced one or many of these losses. It is shattering, heart-breaking. And it is what makes us human. Death and the move towards death draws out of us capacities in us that we didn't know we had. It reveals the mystery held within the cloak of life. The former rock star David Bowie created his final album, Black Star, as he knew he was dying. He kept his cancer a secret to most everyone around him as he made this extraordinary final album. The following section of lyrics is my most favorite - I love the image of the great I AM taking his passport and shoes for the next great adventure. |
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Can't answer why Just go with me |
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I'm going to take you home Take your passport and shoes And your sedatives, too You're a flash in the pan
For all of the things we like to believe we have control over, death will ensure that we do not in fact have control over its timing, or it's appearance in our lives. What it calls from us, instead of control, is presence. Presence and a coming in to being, fully in this moment. Our youth obsessed culture robs us of the knowledge to understand the wisdom and beauty of loss and death. But death calls us to witness and experience it, just as a flower demands our attention at the height of summer.
Until next Friday!
Jen |