Friday, September 24, 2010

Death.

It's a funny thing, death is. 10 out of 10 people die. Some die when they are young, some die when they are old. We know that it will eventually happen to us. We know that it will eventually happen to everybody that we know. We are born into this world with a sure-fire statistic that we all will die.

These are the facts.

Yet for some reason every time death claims another life we are upset. We knew it would happen, yet depression sweeps into the lives of the people that the person had affected.

I’m not going to lecture you about why you should be happy instead of sad when somebody dies but I am going to suggest what you probably already know: the actuality of death is that the person who died is in a much better place. Death is something to be rejoiced at. In death we have the opportunity to appreciate what this person brought to life. The old saying, “You never know what you have until its gone,” is just as true with people as it is with trivial things.

A Roman philosopher, Seneca, said, “The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” In death we begin the rest of our lives. Just as when we go to sleep does tomorrow begin, when we die we really begin to live. Socrates said, “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” We become truly happy at the moment of death because we reach full knowledge and are in complete union with God. According to J.K. Rowling, “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” This adventure is the start of the relationship with God in a whole new realm and should be embraced.

We should not in the least bit be sad about death. If anything, the closer that we are to a person who dies, the happier we should be for them. In all reality we should be envious of the dead because of the glory and peace they are experiencing. It is right to mourn but to dwell on death is not fair to the person. Dwelling on death and wishing that the dead were alive is to do an injustice to the person. We want them back because they meant something to us, they took care of us, they taught us, they loved us but death is a vital part of life and should be embraced.

My last quotation is from DaVinci, “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.” A death is a reason to rejoice, and is to be celebrated, and should never be asked to be reversed. Death is just as great of an occasion as life. It doesn’t seem like this because death gives life a meaning that we can understand but death has greater implications than life ever could have.

“Don’t cry because its over. Smile because it happened.” -Dr. Seuss

Rest in Eternal Peace Grandma

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Dreams.

Nobody knows for sure what they are. There are scientific postulations about what dreams are but at the end of the day there is no conclusive evidence for what they may be. Figments of our imagination? Possibly. Repressed thoughts? Possibly. Desires or aspirations? Possibly. Chemical firings within the brain? Possibly.

The fact stands that I am not yet a psychologist, a neurologist, or any kind of doctor at all. But what I am is a Dreamer. I can tell you that a dream is something that ought to be chased. I have no idea as to what a dream is or what they mean but I can suspect that they contain some element of truth or insight that is worth pursuing.

In my humble and unprofessional opinion, a dream is a motive in which our interior self (the self that is fearless) is positively influencing the culturally-influenced conscious self that carries the “That’s impossible” mentality. A modest British Army soldier of WWI, T. E. Lawrence, said,

    “Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

It was “impossible” for Lawrence to have led a successful revolt against the great Ottoman Empire. It was “impossible” for man to walk on water. It was “impossible” for that cancer patient who was given six months, to live 16 more years. It was “impossible” for man to get to the moon. It was “impossible” for any human being to consume 68 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes. But behind every conquered “impossible” feat lies a dream.

As Lawrence said, we become “dangerous men” when our dreams take form in the physical world. Our “impossible” desires become completely realistic if we can ever find the interior strength, commonly known as “guts” to pursue that which has been regarded as not possible. I am willing to make a bold statement in saying that the minute we are able to trust in our fearless self and do the undareable, go far out on a limb, and just try then we can better know ourselves and perhaps achieve the “impossible”.

Don’t be afraid to dream. Test the unknown waters. Dream with eyes wide open.

I'll leave you with this, Rodgers and Hammerstein said, "Impossible things are happening everyday." Believe it.