4.10.04 | The Saturnyne Muses Upon Death
"What do they think about, in their beds beneath the ground?
What do the dead people think about?
Grave Musings
"When the summer earth swelters, when roots press against their backs like creases in the bedsheets...
When sleep won't come, what notions do they entertain in those frail parchment bulbs that once were skulls?
The party continues overhead, with songs heard before and dances long since wearied of.
Slumbering below, is it a consolation that as with roots and trees, all things above are determined by what lies buried beneath?
Dreaming amongst the foundations of the world, are they content? Do the yellowing ribs still grate together in a nostalgic parody of breath?
Sentinels
"Do the dry sockets thirst for one final glimpse of sky?
Tongueless do they fondly repeat old dialogues, headstones tilting together to share a grievance?
Life In Death
"What do they talk about, in their beds beneath the ground? What do the dead people talk about...
...And which voices are the loudest?"
-From The Saga of the Swamp Thing #41,
by Alan Moore
Today, i have been spending the rainswept twilight hours stalking through graveyards and considering what it means to die and be dead...
Do we really have souls? Does a soul really weigh 21 grams? Where does it go? Which religion has the answer?- imean, they can't all be right, can they? I'd be more willing to bet that they can all be wrong, though.
And does that God guy really have much to say these days?
Does (S)He even exist?
Some people want to leave their mark forever, as if that's some way to immortality. Realistically speaking, i don't think that's gonna happen for anyone. The really really really lucky one's will get a few thousand years at most. Looking at history, i wonder if even your Mohammed, your Christ, your Moses etc. etc. will get that long... Nope, everything ends. And is forgotten. Accepting that, might enrich the lives of many...
Having thought on this at length (years. Of existential crisis), i have to say.
I don't fear the actual dying. I'm hoping that it'll be like waking up (grins).
I'm not so sure how i'll feel about the moments leading up to my demise though...
Will i be afraid? Sad? Happy? Joking through it all like an evil motherfucker? Perhaps a curious mixture of all three.
And the point to all this musing?
Well, Lady Death will come for us all one day, and she's a capricious thing. Any place. Any time, ya know...
If you have things unsaid or love not given. Make a point of saying. Of giving. Today. For tomorrow we die. Probably.
Hopefully just after tea (Harle Syke tea) and with a nice glass of something sweet and alcoholic in hand, and just after dessert, which will hopefully involve something chocolate. Actually, if we could leave it a few hours after tea, it'd be nice to be able to fit in a few rounds of mad pash lovemaking, too, and perhaps a couple of records, anna favourite movie...
Thank-you.
Big love to ye all.
S.xxx
16 comments :.
Isn't it 21grams? o_O
Mueh, I love Death. Delirium's still a personal favourite of the Sandmand series though.
Oh that is spooky. I just watched 21 grams on DVD.
The images in that post were beautiful. I became obsessed with the notion of dying a couple of years back, but my approach was a little less poetic and a lot more pragmatic. I researched what happens to your body when it decomposes (there are some fab pics out there...). As an atheist I have issues with the whole life after death caboodle. On a completely different level, I got into an arguement with a lecturer in a communications lecture who said dead bodies can't tell tales. Of course they can...
PS...as to the Sandman character debate, my fav supporting character has to be Shiverin' Jemmy of the Shallow Brigade. Because I want to be her. Because I am already a little bit her.
yeah, it is 21 grams, and i thought i altered it befoe i posted the bloody thing! D'oh! but thanks for pointing it out Lzzy
And that is why I shall be cremated. Or consent to Vampirism and Immortality. I don't want a place underground...as you said...in a thousand years...who will even know I am there? and better yet...in a hundred years, who will be left to care? Burial is pointless. And creepy.
Janey, Shivering Jemmy? EeK! but kinda cute. I actually always kinda liked Martin Tenbones outta the minor supporting cast (i hope i remembered his name right) but am still undecided really about my favourite... That silent Angel(Duma?) was always kinda cool...
Good point there Cece... i always thought i wanted to be buried... y'know, going back to the Earth's womb, give the relatives and friends somewhere to visit... but i guess, if i outlive the important ones, then a cremation wouldn't be a worry... or mebbe an exotic sky burial like they have in parts of India.
My parents have already kindly sorted their funerals out for my brother and I, by picking their own burial plots and coffins at a woodland burial site. They were kinda choosy about the view. They actually visit their plots as well, and are very excited by the fact that in the two years since purchase the prices have doubled.
I think I'd like my carcass to go to the medical facility who dump you in the open air in various seasons so that they can learn from your decomposition. At least I'd have some use, rather than being a moldering hump of earth.
And you'd like to be a large, furry dog type creature devoted to his princess...that's kinda sweet, S.
I related to Jemmy most when she got angry. BIG scary!
i didn't really think about death much until my grandmother passed away 5 years ago.
i know now that i want to be cremated. i don't like the idea of my body decomposing. i guess it wouldn't matter much, since my body is just the vessel for my inner spirit, but i still don't want it in a grave slowly decaying.
i'm not religious. i might like to have my ashes scattered somewhere in england, which is my favorite place.
i don't fear death, really, but i worry about suffering before death. i wish all deaths were immediate, and no one would suffer pain.
hey can't all be right, can they?
Why not? Its better than thinking they're all wrong.
the dead don't share,
though they reach towards us from the grave
(i swear they do)they do not hand their hearts to you,
they and their head,
the part that stares.
(stan rice :-P)
21 Grams is a mint film, almost bought it the other day.
Haha. Here in Singapore you don't even get to choose. Thanks to serious land constraints its just Cremate-yourself-or-else. All our dead reside in urns, resting in snug-fit cubicles that line the halls of multi-story buildings...
In the words of the one and only Trent Reznor,
# Your God is dead
And we don't care
If there is a hell
I'll see you there #
Deep!
And damn you, Saturnyne - by mentioning Swamp Thing, you've put the Return of the Killer Tomatos theme tune on my internal jukebox...
Death is something you cannot avoid, so let it be. What i really hate is the idea of a funeral, people staring at you when you´re no more than a dead body. I´d rather be nude in public than having people looking when i can´t see them.
As it says on the Funeral songs section of my website, funerals should celebrate life, not mourn it. I intend to leave enough cash for a huge wake, and as to open caskets, they're not really used much in the UK. Though the wife up the street from us did have her husband just behind the front door in his open coffin, and took pictures of him.
I guess it's pretty much horses for courses. I always bury my hamsters on the cliff tops looking out to sea. We get funny looks walking along with our trowl and a little parcel, but what the hell!
Oh yes. Life is for living. Plenty of time for worrying about being dead, when ye actually are...
For myself, i have an insatiable curiosity about everything. I like to know.
And i too would be wanting a wake. Just in the way you describe, Janey.
WEll this post has certainly generated a lot of interesting responses so far. I did wonder if it would be a bit too disturbing for some, or too gloomy.
I think the next one will be much lighter in tone...
Happy happy happy, joy joy joy...
"Does a soul really weigh 21 grams?"
You're on the wrong side of the pond to be using gram so we'll stick to grammes if you don't mind ;) but in either case no they don't :
http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp
Ah, mr Carl, why didn't i put it to your scientific mind in the first place?
Still at leasti managed to get a link in to the film...
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