Recovery aa - Death and Minor Topics, brief redux

Author

Death and Minor Topics, brief redux

F.H.

2006-01-27, 11:03 am

Gary wrote: "I haven't counted but I seem to have thoughts of death,
my own, and/or what it means fairly regularly. Not daily but
regularly." [end quote]

I believe I have mentioned that when I was younger I was kind of
obsessed about death and dying. People were often saying to me "you're
too young to be thinking about such things." Not so much anymore, seem
to have come 3/4 circle. They say a near death experience often frees
one of the fear of death. Seems logical.

Last April an old friend of mine went in for minor surgery at about the
same time as I. Both of us were put under in routine fashion. For me,
two hours later I was awakened and the healing began. My friend was
not so lucky. If it had worked out the same for me I would have never
known, would I? Oh well. Somehow the experience left me a little less
concerned and a little freer about the whole deal. Hell, I may even
take this "all the world is a stage" business to heart and write myself
a new part. Why not?

If there's a key insight to be grasped in contemplating this subject at
all I think it's captured in this exchange between Moyers and Campbell
from "The Power of Myth."

Moyers: Which stories from mythology help us understand death?

Campbell: You don't understand death, you learn to acquiesce in death.
I would say that the story of Christ assuming the form of a human
servant, even to death on the cross, is the principal lesson for us of
the acceptance of death. The story of Oedipus and the Sphinx has
something to say of this, too. The Sphinx in the Oedipus story is not
the Egyptian Sphinx, but a female form with the wings of a bird, the
body of an animal, and the breast, neck and face of a woman. What she
represents is the destiny of all life. She has sent a plague over the
land, and to lift the plague, the hero has to answer the riddle that she
presents:

"What is it that walks on four legs, then on two legs, and then on
three?" The answer is "Man." The child creeps about on four legs, the
adult walks on two, and the aged walk with a cane.

The riddle of the Sphinx is the image of life itself through time.
Childhood, maturity, age, and death. When without fear you have faced
and accepted the riddle of the Sphinx, death has no further hold on you,
and the curse of the Sphinx disappears. The conquest of the fear of
death is the recovery of life's joy. One can experience an
unconditional affirmation of life only when one has accepted death, not
as contrary to life but as an *aspect* of life. Life in its becoming is
always shedding death, and on the point of death. The conquest of fear
yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every
heroic adventure, fearlessness and achievement.

Chronocidal Charlie

2006-01-27, 11:03 am

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F.H. wrote:

> Gary wrote: "I haven't counted but I seem to have thoughts of death,
> my own, and/or what it means fairly regularly. Not daily but
> regularly." [end quote]
>
> I believe I have mentioned that when I was younger I was kind of
> obsessed about death and dying. People were often saying to me "you're
> too young to be thinking about such things." Not so much anymore, seem
> to have come 3/4 circle. They say a near death experience often frees
> one of the fear of death. Seems logical.
>
> Last April an old friend of mine went in for minor surgery at about the
> same time as I. Both of us were put under in routine fashion. For me,
> two hours later I was awakened and the healing began. My friend was
> not so lucky. If it had worked out the same for me I would have never
> known, would I? Oh well. Somehow the experience left me a little less
> concerned and a little freer about the whole deal. Hell, I may even
> take this "all the world is a stage" business to heart and write myself
> a new part. Why not?
>
> If there's a key insight to be grasped in contemplating this subject at
> all I think it's captured in this exchange between Moyers and Campbell
> from "The Power of Myth."
>
> Moyers: Which stories from mythology help us understand death?
>
> Campbell: You don't understand death, you learn to acquiesce in death.
> I would say that the story of Christ assuming the form of a human
> servant, even to death on the cross, is the principal lesson for us of
> the acceptance of death. The story of Oedipus and the Sphinx has
> something to say of this, too. The Sphinx in the Oedipus story is not
> the Egyptian Sphinx, but a female form with the wings of a bird, the
> body of an animal, and the breast, neck and face of a woman. What she
> represents is the destiny of all life. She has sent a plague over the
> land, and to lift the plague, the hero has to answer the riddle that she
> presents:
>
> "What is it that walks on four legs, then on two legs, and then on
> three?" The answer is "Man." The child creeps about on four legs, the
> adult walks on two, and the aged walk with a cane.
>
> The riddle of the Sphinx is the image of life itself through time.
> Childhood, maturity, age, and death. When without fear you have faced
> and accepted the riddle of the Sphinx, death has no further hold on you,
> and the curse of the Sphinx disappears. The conquest of the fear of
> death is the recovery of life's joy. One can experience an
> unconditional affirmation of life only when one has accepted death, not
> as contrary to life but as an *aspect* of life. Life in its becoming is
> always shedding death, and on the point of death. The conquest of fear
> yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every
> heroic adventure, fearlessness and achievement.

When I was in the eighth grade I had to memorize William Cullen Bryant's
Thanatosis.

Much of the poem has stuck in my memory, but particularly the last verse.

The version I learned only differs slightly from all the published versions
I find today. My memory says...

So go, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Go thou not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

The difference is the "So go..." in my memory and "So Live... in published
versions and "Go thou not..." in my memory and "Thou go not..." in the
published versions.

The poem in it's entirety is at...

http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem....3037&poem=13410

I still sometime think about that poem when a thought of death comes
fleeting and *thank* that teacher who made me memorize it. ;-)

Death the great equalizer. ;-)

CC
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