Elderly Wisdom
So I was having quite the in depth conversation with my Grandma about some really big reality issues that I'm having at the moment. I've been pretty confused and frusterated by the emense amount that human kind has no answers for. Stars, God, Evolution, Relation, and most of all, Death. I mean a lot of people that I've been talking to just say they embrace death as a natural thing. But it scares me mostly because we don't know what it is really. I mean our heart ceases to beat and there's no brain activity but where does the energy that circulates through our body go? Because if you believe in science you know that energy can not be destroyed. And I say beleive in science because that all you can really do is believe. It's the same faith that others have in God. Because any day at any time, up could be down, right could be left and there's nothing we could do to explain it. I mean our whole existence up untill we're 18 or older is based on faith. Mostly because we live in a society where kids are raised my television screens. It's the only thing we have to go on really. Like you see Germany or Australia on TV but you havent been there so for all you know it could just not exsist, so you've got to just trust that its there. Anyways I had quite the vivid dream about a lot of this stuff and I went to my Grandma because I was pretty shaken. I just asked her "How would we know if the world was going to end? I mean there wouldnt be any indication or forwarning right?" And she replied "I guess not, but do you really want to live your life like that. Always worrying about what would happen? The way that I see it is when I die, I just want to be around the people that I love." All I could say next was "But isn't that a waste if everyone dies alone. Isn't death a journey that we all go through in solitare?" She said "No not nessecarily, I beleive that if you were to die with someone held in your arms, your spirits would embark together as in life." In the state I was in, this was just some kind of trigger for me I think. The words that she spoke filled me with the most amount of courage and hope I have ever felt in my entire life. I couldn't help but just cry. Not the kind of cry where you face gets all mangled and twisted. But the kind that you smile through.
I guess the point of this post was to just ask if anyone else has had a similar experience. Have you ever gotten words of wisdom from an adult in your life that just changed everything?
posted by LastVegas @ 11:04 PM
11 Comments:
I'm curious about your dream... sounds pretty powerful.
You're really lucky to be so close to your grandmother to share such deep thoughts and concerns with her. Most people I know don't have that kind of relationship with their grandparents although I think they'd like to. We'd all like some guidance from some people who are further down the road and can see more...
So where do you think we go when die? You brought up such great questions here and I'm curious about your answers to them -- especially the contradictory answers.
As for me, death has been on my mind a lot recently too. Partly because I recently watched season 5 of Six Feet Under (seriously, the best tv show ever made and written by playwrights...) and also because well, something has changed in me recently and i'm no longer waiting for my life to begin as i feel i have been for the past 25 years, but now i'm aware that this is my life and i'm happy in it so i guess that means the only thing left to wait for is death. and i'm not as okay with death as i used to think i was. there are too many people that i don't want to lose and don't want to leave behind... and yet, it is a certainty -- perhaps the only thing that we can be certain of.
there was a great quote in 6 ft. Under. it went something like this -- in order to truly live you've first got to learn how to die.
i guess that's what life is really about -- learning how to die.
anyone read the Tibeten Book of the Dead? nathan, if you're still asking yourself these questions, you might find it really enlightening. it's about how we can use our lives to learn how to die.
bonne chance.
And taxes.
It's interesting that you brought up the energy after we die in your post because I think that was a topic on the first rainplay blog, wasn't it? Energy remains as stored energy until it is used by bacteria and fungi and things like that to grow. Then larger things eat the bacteria and fungi and the energy that was once our living breathing bodies goes into other living breathing bodies or trees or tape-worms or anything. I like to think of it as proof of reincarnation. It may not be what the Hindus or Buddhists meant by reincarnation but I think that sometimes we find that these cooky ideas that have no basis or proof end up being more truthful than we originally thought.
Maybe the Buddhists knew something that we didn't.
I don't think i believe that my soul is transported into the tapeworms and the bacteria who will eat me or the flowers I will fertilize. But I do like to think that the body which is now so important to my survival will be important to someone else's survival when I don't need it anymore. And I guess their bodies will be used when they don't need them anymore too. It's not so much reincarnation as simple recycling, you know. It's comforting because I don't ever want to be nothing, but I don't think I want to live forever either
I think other people dying is a lot scarier than my own death anyway. When I die I won't be around to experience it. Besides, I can grasp the idea of losing whereas I can't grasp the idea of being lost--being nothing.
Well ya my relationship with my grandparents is just really strong and important to me just because circumstances have kinda changed a lot for me.
I dont think I really can say where I think we go when we die. The way that I see it now is that there's a lot of talk about "The end of the World" But to me the end of the world is when we die. That part of us is gone. I think that there must be some place that we go when we die. That this place that seems so real to us is just a shadow of the life that we will come to know.
I think that to a certain extent that's a really hard way to live. To just beleive that there's something else and that we're not all just wasting our time. I like to stay fairly optimistic and try to find beauty in the world we're in now. I think that things like Love and Hope are things worth living for. Because to most people their whole world changes when they fall in Love with someone. They find someone that is just as scared of the world and death and whatnot and it's someone to face that with. Best friends can have very much the same effect.
For me, I have to say that these questions dont seem to have answers to them. That we will go on wondering our entire lives untill we're ready to know. I just hope that for the sake of sanity, that we are not alone. That one day when I'm 45 or 80 that they find something else out there. I hope that when I lay down to die, that I can breathe a sigh of releif, because there's so much to look forward to.
Maybe thats just me :)
hmm a bit off topic but that mention of tibetan monks and death got me thinking, ive been thinkinga a lot about zombies lately (read world war Z great book, and a great look at our society today) and i was talking to my world lit (a crazy demonic way of torturing ib students, make them come in on saturday mornings to talk about philosiphy and existentailism that theyve learnt through the reading of translated books ahahah its actually quite enlightening) teacher, she told me that tibetan monks build their doors shorter so that zombies couldnt get in, there thinking is that zombies cant bend and therfore a short door will prevent them from getting in the house...its refreshing to hear about stuff liek that from time to time...to hear about the belief in stuff that isnt widely proven or accepted...
if you thought that was off topic just wait until you hear this:
i think my favourite part about zombie movies is the reasoning behind why they exist. i absolutely love the quote from dawn of the dead (the old one. a must see) : "When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." i think that is such a neat idea.
even more off topic: have any of you ever seen the ed wood movie "glen or glenda"?
speaking of off topic.
every not see something until your out of it?
like how one person can manage to manipulate everyone around him.
its quite amazing actually.
almost sickening.
yes, but i bet i didn't see the same person manipulating in the same way... feel free to extrapolate...
sorry about that.
just venting.
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