yes, like the Force

ironically, in this season of spring, i was suddenly struck this evening by thoughts of mortality.

it's not that i'm morbid person, or at least i don't think of myself as such, yet i was reflecting on my experience at the vet today, and a couple there who had to put their beloved pet to sleep. it may be ridiculous to sob over the death of an animal, but i will never laugh at the pain of anyone who loses someone whom they cherish as a part of their family. i feel very fortunate to have two healthy, if destructive to my house, cats.

but what about the mortality of people? in some ways we are more careless because we know a great many injuries can be treated now with modern medicine; on the flip side, however, new diseases and extended lifelines have made that same seeming immortality to be more fragile–the more we can save it, the more life becomes precious, irreplaceable, and death unacceptable.

the further we advance as a society, the more we draw back from facing the inevitable, than did our counterparts in earlier centuries. or is it just more openly accepted, to be so afraid of the end? was the faith of earlier generations stronger, or wasn't there ever that tiny seedling of doubt, of dread of parting from every sensation and connection we live for every day?

or maybe people have always had the same feelings, but recognize them in different capacities throughout time. i like to think of einstein's theory of matter never going away–only changing form. surely all the paradises of faiths everywhere proclaim the same message that c.s. lewis, the dalai lama, philip pullman, joseph campbell, george lucas, and however many thinkers on the subject you can name, proclaim: namely, that the meaning of life after death is to be one with God, part of that sacred synthesis of energy and being that radiates across the universe, binding us...

....yes, like the Force. <3