This is another allusion to the closing scene (and the whole story of the show included in that moment) of LOST, no?
That was something I wanted to write about on your last post, actually. I like the emphasis from Christian Shepherd ("you're kidding me, right?") to his son, Jack, that "everything that has happened to you is real. All of it." Even in death and in this quasi-purgatorial state of trying to individually (but requiring the help of the collective in the process) move on to their happiness that was always right in front of them but which they needed to be made aware of again, and go through turmoil and struggle to arrive at peace again. They were Lost. Finally, they found themselves and what made them happy and then were at peace.
It is nothing more than "magical thinking," to use the phrase from Joan Didion, but it still makes for a profound and provocative story of life during and after death, without all the insidious intimations and trappings of religious doctrines. It's just a more "natural" and palatable bit of magical thinking, perhaps.
I only say this because I'm just not sure what I really think or know about that emotionally-loaded word/concept of "death." To be completely honest (and I feel safe saying this here without being preached to for not being completely certain of my soul's eternal whereabouts and relationship to other people in the afterlife), I'm just living with the rather bracing view that I won't necessarily "see" or "know" Josalyn or London or any of you again once my life and vitality has come to a close. Thus my desire to make the most of every moment here right now (and I do like your email about whole-family get-togethers and vacations)--to live every day a life of passionate happiness with the ones that I love and not get bogged down or attached to anything over them--because in the end those are the things that cause regrets and remorse (not whether your life was lived in accordance with a celestial dictator or not--and how dare we think we can know "his" mind, anyway?). In the process of living and being happy myself and with my own little family, I can then interact with my extended family and that love and happiness will shine through and hopefully affect them positively as well. And it is all natural and authentic.
In light of this life--in truth, even this very moment--being all we know we have right now to experience each other and know each other, another bracing aspect of it all is just how fragile that happiness can be should someone or something interfere unjustly to destroy it. My royal ire is royally raised all the higher (whatever that means) by the injustices foisted upon such a carefully nurtured happiness by self-serving, cruel, sociopathic, psychopathic, dangerous people who have a mind to hurt or harm you just because you aren't them or are different from them or don't understand you or just aren't relating to the world in any positive way at all.
TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT COMMENT BECAUSE OF CHARACTER LIMIT ON COMMENTS....
But if I were to indulge in some magical thinking about death and life after death, it would be more closely along the lines of the LOST scenario and story arc. I get it. I really do. At its most basic level, I think it is creatively indicating what many have long said: death is like life. Why should it be any different? It is just another phase of life, like the entire arc of development and decay in our physical bodies from birth to final breath. And that involves--just like our lives do here in this present life--the individual and collective struggles and complications and ultimate resolution/peace, but one that is only arrived at when one becomes okay with himself and others no longer conflict with him. When he remembers again or discovers anew that which at his most basic level makes him happy.
Josalyn and I actually compared this idea presented by the show LOST to that now-older movie "What Dreams May Come" starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. Remember that? It was a visually stunning movie at the time, exploring non-traditional notions of the afterlife, of such concepts as an individual "heaven" or "hell," of the afterlife being just like this life--what you make of it every day, of what you choose to remember, operate on, and how that affects your daily outlook and behavior toward yourself and other people. It involves, as always in life, a "letting go" of that which is against you, so to speak.
It's a bit more foggy right now, but I think these ideas are also discussed in that film "Jacob's Ladder" starring Tim Robbins and Danny Aiello.
Both of these, like LOST, are excellent explorations and acknowledgements of a more natural order of things in death than the alternative traditional religious notions. But I still feel at this point in my life and opinion that it is all magical thinking about something that we just can't or don't know about at this point in our existence as a species (again I insert myself as the killjoy here.
This doesn't mean that's the final word on it all and there is no room for further discussion. Such would be the essence of hubris. Obviously, I'll talk about this stuff all day long. In my gut, of course, I feel like I want to know Josalyn and London and all of you forever. But from where I stand I just don't know if such is the case. Perhaps I'll be happily surprised. Perhaps I will, like the characters in LOST, have to spend my every waking moment in death trying to find that happiness again with my loved ones. Perhaps, as Cuba Gooding, Jr. does in What Dreams May Come, I'll have to travel into my own loved ones private and personal hells to pull them back from the brink of self-destruction to be at peace and move on. I'll just have to find out.
Very thought-provoking post here, Paul. Thanks for allowing me to blab away here on your blog. For the venue, so to speak.
I was just listening to a favorite musician, Ryan Adams, in particular his song "Follow the Lights" from the EP of the same title. It struck me suddenly as I really paid attention to the lyrics that seems to closely resemble two things here in this discussion so far. First, the idea at the end of LOST that "everything that has happened to you is real." Second, what Paul alludes to here in this post--that we all in some sense simultaneously live and die both individually and collectively.
I'll just leave you with the lyrics here. Even if I am wrong in my interpretation of the song, it was just one of those cool moments where music and life/philosophy/my own personal thoughts sync-ed perfectly, and I felt most like sharing the moment here since it seems to fit.
"If every second here is true Our love is strong enough to guide the way and we'll walk through Hands inside of hands, hearts inside of hearts Like eyes closed, side by side and through."
"If everything we are is real Our memories are attics in those houses on the hill Our love is there above us holding everything so still And we are always here, yes, we are always here"
"So follow the lights that line the streets connecting telephones Follow the lights from house to house And they will lead you home"
"They will lead you home Because there was never anywhere to go There was never anywhere to go There was never anywhere to go But home Home"
The lyrics were very poignant to me Dustin, and I agree with your assertion that there is a correspondence between these lyrics and the overarching themes of Lost. I am going to comment more on your comments here in another post that I am about type up right now!
4 comments:
This is another allusion to the closing scene (and the whole story of the show included in that moment) of LOST, no?
That was something I wanted to write about on your last post, actually. I like the emphasis from Christian Shepherd ("you're kidding me, right?") to his son, Jack, that "everything that has happened to you is real. All of it." Even in death and in this quasi-purgatorial state of trying to individually (but requiring the help of the collective in the process) move on to their happiness that was always right in front of them but which they needed to be made aware of again, and go through turmoil and struggle to arrive at peace again. They were Lost. Finally, they found themselves and what made them happy and then were at peace.
It is nothing more than "magical thinking," to use the phrase from Joan Didion, but it still makes for a profound and provocative story of life during and after death, without all the insidious intimations and trappings of religious doctrines. It's just a more "natural" and palatable bit of magical thinking, perhaps.
I only say this because I'm just not sure what I really think or know about that emotionally-loaded word/concept of "death." To be completely honest (and I feel safe saying this here without being preached to for not being completely certain of my soul's eternal whereabouts and relationship to other people in the afterlife), I'm just living with the rather bracing view that I won't necessarily "see" or "know" Josalyn or London or any of you again once my life and vitality has come to a close. Thus my desire to make the most of every moment here right now (and I do like your email about whole-family get-togethers and vacations)--to live every day a life of passionate happiness with the ones that I love and not get bogged down or attached to anything over them--because in the end those are the things that cause regrets and remorse (not whether your life was lived in accordance with a celestial dictator or not--and how dare we think we can know "his" mind, anyway?). In the process of living and being happy myself and with my own little family, I can then interact with my extended family and that love and happiness will shine through and hopefully affect them positively as well. And it is all natural and authentic.
In light of this life--in truth, even this very moment--being all we know we have right now to experience each other and know each other, another bracing aspect of it all is just how fragile that happiness can be should someone or something interfere unjustly to destroy it. My royal ire is royally raised all the higher (whatever that means) by the injustices foisted upon such a carefully nurtured happiness by self-serving, cruel, sociopathic, psychopathic, dangerous people who have a mind to hurt or harm you just because you aren't them or are different from them or don't understand you or just aren't relating to the world in any positive way at all.
TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT COMMENT BECAUSE OF CHARACTER LIMIT ON COMMENTS....
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS COMMENT...
But if I were to indulge in some magical thinking about death and life after death, it would be more closely along the lines of the LOST scenario and story arc. I get it. I really do. At its most basic level, I think it is creatively indicating what many have long said: death is like life. Why should it be any different? It is just another phase of life, like the entire arc of development and decay in our physical bodies from birth to final breath. And that involves--just like our lives do here in this present life--the individual and collective struggles and complications and ultimate resolution/peace, but one that is only arrived at when one becomes okay with himself and others no longer conflict with him. When he remembers again or discovers anew that which at his most basic level makes him happy.
Josalyn and I actually compared this idea presented by the show LOST to that now-older movie "What Dreams May Come" starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. Remember that? It was a visually stunning movie at the time, exploring non-traditional notions of the afterlife, of such concepts as an individual "heaven" or "hell," of the afterlife being just like this life--what you make of it every day, of what you choose to remember, operate on, and how that affects your daily outlook and behavior toward yourself and other people. It involves, as always in life, a "letting go" of that which is against you, so to speak.
It's a bit more foggy right now, but I think these ideas are also discussed in that film "Jacob's Ladder" starring Tim Robbins and Danny Aiello.
Both of these, like LOST, are excellent explorations and acknowledgements of a more natural order of things in death than the alternative traditional religious notions. But I still feel at this point in my life and opinion that it is all magical thinking about something that we just can't or don't know about at this point in our existence as a species (again I insert myself as the killjoy here.
This doesn't mean that's the final word on it all and there is no room for further discussion. Such would be the essence of hubris. Obviously, I'll talk about this stuff all day long. In my gut, of course, I feel like I want to know Josalyn and London and all of you forever. But from where I stand I just don't know if such is the case. Perhaps I'll be happily surprised. Perhaps I will, like the characters in LOST, have to spend my every waking moment in death trying to find that happiness again with my loved ones. Perhaps, as Cuba Gooding, Jr. does in What Dreams May Come, I'll have to travel into my own loved ones private and personal hells to pull them back from the brink of self-destruction to be at peace and move on. I'll just have to find out.
Very thought-provoking post here, Paul. Thanks for allowing me to blab away here on your blog. For the venue, so to speak.
I was just listening to a favorite musician, Ryan Adams, in particular his song "Follow the Lights" from the EP of the same title. It struck me suddenly as I really paid attention to the lyrics that seems to closely resemble two things here in this discussion so far. First, the idea at the end of LOST that "everything that has happened to you is real." Second, what Paul alludes to here in this post--that we all in some sense simultaneously live and die both individually and collectively.
I'll just leave you with the lyrics here. Even if I am wrong in my interpretation of the song, it was just one of those cool moments where music and life/philosophy/my own personal thoughts sync-ed perfectly, and I felt most like sharing the moment here since it seems to fit.
"If every second here is true
Our love is strong enough to guide the way and we'll walk through
Hands inside of hands, hearts inside of hearts
Like eyes closed, side by side and through."
"If everything we are is real
Our memories are attics in those houses on the hill
Our love is there above us holding everything so still
And we are always here, yes, we are always here"
"So follow the lights
that line the streets connecting telephones
Follow the lights from house to house
And they will lead you home"
"They will lead you home
Because there was never anywhere to go
There was never anywhere to go
There was never anywhere to go
But home
Home"
The lyrics were very poignant to me Dustin, and I agree with your assertion that there is a correspondence between these lyrics and the overarching themes of Lost. I am going to comment more on your comments here in another post that I am about type up right now!
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