Tag: Mark Twain

Dear Death

Death is on my mind lately.

No particular reason. I occasionally flirt with thoughts of death and dying.

It’s a form of interim stock-taking. Thinking about what’s gone before. What may be ahead. Like routine maintenance. What do I have to tweak or do better to make my inevitable end more calm and peaceful?

One good thing about having a total mid-life meltdown is that it can initiate a major reframing of your life goal and priorities. I used to think it was important for me to be someone important.

I came to learn that making others feel important is more important than being important yourself. Depending on your hopes and dreams.

It comes down to whether you choose to lead your life with your head or your heart. A combination is optimum.

We spend an inordinate amount of time running from the reality of death as our last pit stop. If I manage to avoid a violent and messy end, I expect death will be just one long night’s sleep at the end of the day. If I’m lucky.

I fear the disintegration of physical strength and skill more than I fear death itself. I have often considered what I would do with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Pack up and go home, I think. At that actual moment, my feelings may change.

I like running my own ship. I don’t like to rely on others. Though I do.

So the following quotes helped me reframe my recent thoughts about death and woke me up a little.

I expect dying folks are about the wisest folks there is on the planet.

Whether they are happy about dying or not is a whole other discussion.

Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have.

It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death—ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.

One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.

One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us.

(Book: The Fire Next Time [ad] https://amzn.to/3TcCyl5)

James Baldwin

Mark Twain may have put death in the best perspective of all.

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” 

Mark Twain

I expect he’s right.

I’ll Be Brief

I aim to write a 2-3 minute blog post every day. And for most of the past 65 days, I have. Sometimes four minutes long which I consider excessive. I ain’t all that. I love that what I write sometimes surprises me. Like chasing a rabbit down a hole and finding yourself having a delicious and carefully prepared tea with some interesting characters.

As I consider how to approach this piece you are reading, I am reminded of a quote attributed to various literary luminaries. Often believed to be from Mark Twain but it was really Blaise Pascal: “I’m sorry that this was such a long lett­er, but I didn’t have time to write you a short one.” 

We faceless bureaucrats often changed the text of that original quote to throw in politicians’ speeches for the laugh: “I am sorry I am giving such a long speech. I didn’t have time to write a short one.”

Today’s blog length is a deliberate choice. A short blog so I can focus on other writing. So I can organize some things I have been letting slip to the back burner.

One of those back-burner issues is taxes. I have about a month’s leeway on submitting everything with no taxes to pay. But I need the accursed annual nuisance off my plate.

The laundry needs folding. The fridge needs offloading. Mail must be posted. Unsuitable items must be returned to merchants. So today, and for most of tomorrow, I am going to focus on those.

I will see what new things the world has to show me and what insight or amusement I can gain from them. My car is stocked with a bottle of birdseed in case I see some compatriot Canada Geese looking for grub. It is always a pleasant activity to watch them gobbling up corn and sunflower seeds.

And yes, I almost forgot. We bought a new house. Closes in about three weeks. Now there is a major distraction if ever there was one.

There will no doubt be more to say about that acquisition. I am in the giddy-overwhelmed stage where we have to check all the boxes before closing and then actually move. If I survive, I shall let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, if this blog post is more than a minute, I will hang a picture of myself on the WordPress Wall of Shame. Surely there must be such a thing.