by Scott Creighton
I was occupied yesterday. Some bad news for a friend. Someone very close to her shuffled off this mortal coil in an unexpected way.
My deepest and sincerest condolences to you.
Just a reminder folks, though it's a cliche at moments like this but... it's only a ride folks. It goes up and down and fast and slow and sometimes seems completely out of control while other times it's hardly moving.
Yes it's a ride and by the nature of a ride, its finite and we don't get to control when it starts... or when it ends.
Some of us ride alone. Some ride in packs, scared of the ride. Some ride with partners to share the joy with them and those are the lucky ones... until they find themselves riding alone.
The older I get the more I find myself believing what my mother Janet believed... that we are all part of something infinite, something vast, older than time. Something from which we are born so that we may return.
Yes ashes return to the dust... the dust that fell from the stars. Yes ashes to ashes, dust to dust... but energy, I believe, our energy, our souls, returns as well to something as of yet unknown to us.
Energy to energy.
It is the law of conservation. Nothing is wasted in this spinning blue-green thing we call home so why should our experiences, our growth, our discoveries, our loves, our losses, our triumphs, our failures, our joys and sorrows simply ebb away into the nothingness as if they never were?
Energy to energy.
I look at the miracle of the human body, how perfect an engine it is, a vehicle for us to us to gather and collect all of the experiences of life, good and bad, and I can't help but think there is so much more than I could ever hope to understand.
But that is my opinion, nothing more.
Yes it's a ride. Bill was right about that.
But like any other ride, you can get back in line.
You can and you will meet again all those you love and hold most dear on that ride once again.
My friend, I wish you solace during this painful time.
And for him... what else could I play but a little exit stage left music for him to enjoy while he's waiting in line for you.
salamun alaykum
(ps... definitely not Yellowman)