Lost a good
friend yesterday. We all have at least a couple of good friends who lead lives
such that we don’t want to get the call, but we aren’t surprised about getting
it. Rich was one of those friends for me. Heck, to be honest, I’m probably one
of those friends for some of the people I know.
Ironically,
I had seen an article earlier in the week explaining why we humans need to tell
ourselves stories about what happens after death in order to deal with the fear
of it.
Let’s cut
to the chase; last night someone looked at me and said, “Rich is in a happier
place.” I get the logic, but that’s just one of the stories we tell ourselves
to deal with the fear.
What if it
isn’t a happier place? What if after-death is like the idea fundamentalists
seem to convey, fire/brimstone/Republicans at every turn telling you how bad
things are? What if eternity is being locked in a closet with a Wal-Mart Duke
fan after the Dookies have beaten Carolina by 30 points?
Last night a
mutual friend told me he’d worked in an emergency room and seen someone’s
spirit leave their body and sit in the corner and laugh at the spectacle of the
body simply turning into a dead vessel. He also said he’d been working 36 hour
straight with no sleep so you never know.
We all deal
with the fear in our own ways. So, here’s what I think about the Big Question:
As humans we are the highest, most refined form of energy on the planet (and,
maybe in the universe, as far as we know). If you do good in your life you
refine your energy, you make it better/cleaner/brighter. If you don’t do good
you sully/darken/weaken the energy you were given.
When we die our energy goes
back into what is essentially the energy bank that is life and mixes with the
energy from others. Kinda like when it rains and the water goes into the rivers
and the rivers flow back to the sea.
At some point, some of the energy flows
back out into another human (yes, it’s kinda like reincarnation, but probably
more like that sweater your Aunt Martha gave to Goodwill and someone else who
REALLY needed a sweater got it and used it and was warmed by it). Unless you’re
that pharmacist who spent his career putting child-proof caps on prescription
bottles that went to over-50 people who then got carpal-tunnel syndrome trying
to get the caps off their prescription bottles. His energy became a slug in a
waste dump in Uganda.
And then,
the person who got some of what was your energy starts the process all over.
That’s what
I think.
So, right
now Rich’s energy is mixing with the energy of all the folks who passed away in
the last day or two and some of it is already being doled out to babies who are
as beautiful as my new great-niece, Charlotte.
Rich lived
in a wide-open fashion that sometimes didn’t click with folks who lived more
linear lives. I have to believe that, in some ways, his lifestyle caught up
with him. I also believe that on some levels he was ready to move on. But,
maybe that’s just the story I’m telling myself to try and make his loss easier.
See you
Monday.