Between Love and Death
I’m in a weird place right now. My Grandmother is in hospice, dying. Could be days, could be minutes. At the same time, I’m writing a brief “sermon” of sorts for my best friend’s wedding. I’m writing about the intense love they have for each other while thinking about my decaying Grandmother. This is all coming to you unfiltered, by the way.
The juxtaposition of fresh love and impending doom does not sit well with me. Is this what they mean by “bittersweet”? Through ceremony and ritual, my friends will be united to continue their long lives together in love. My Grandmother received Last Rites to clear her soul for her final journey. The cynical humorist would joke that my friend and my Grandmother were meeting the same fate, but this is not the time, nor is it true.
Death does great work of pointing out life’s cruelty, the Cosmic Prank played out by the Almighty His Bad Self. Love, on the other hand, highlights life’s greatest triumph, the raison d’etre, the only thing we can ever hope to achieve, if only for a brief moment.
Standing between the two spheres of existence, glorifying one while lamenting the other, I can’t help but wonder, “Is this it?”
Posted on May 7th, 2008 by John Farley
Filed under: Trepidation
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