Mind the Gap
29 November 2022 Issue No. 9
“Immortality”
I don’t live in an old body. I am an old body. Age sometimes is a number, mine passed 23,000 days a few years ago. The older I get, the more I suffer from vanity. Currently I see myself as a wise pundit, a subject matter expert, a fountain of wisdom and knowledge. Why cannot everyone be as wise as I am, follow my guidance? Sadly, no one beats a path to my door seeking my counsel. Still, I try to live into that self-image. Thus, I type away trusting that someone will read what I write and benefit from these words.
There’s a definite possibility that I will not live to see my 46,000th day of life. Life being defined here as this composite of trillions of cells that make up this body that goes by the rather common name of James West.
November, especially in the northern hemisphere, with its long nights, is as good a time as any to think about one’s mortality. I don’t mind thinking about the world getting along without me. Afterall, the world got along well enough for the thousands if not billions of years before I showed up.
I really don’t worry too much about how my children and their children and their children’s children will get on with their lives. Granted, the world seems to be in its worst shape since the beginning of recorded and unrecorded history. It does seem that each generation believes, at least on some level, that it will be the last one.
A week or so ago I had a dream where one of the characters in it advised, to no one in particular that it would do the earth a world of good if all babies were aborted before birth, that way the rest of the plants and animals might have a fighting chance of living in a healthier environment. Was it a dream of being the last generation? Perhaps it was a reaction to all the bad news that’s going around.
The immortality of the soul has been with us since antiquity. It’s had a revival with near death accounts offered as proof that there is something about us that continues forever. It’s a bad idea.
The idea of the immortality of the soul cannot fill the gap between life and death. Near death experiences are sometimes offered to support this notion. I contend that the gap remains because even people with near death experiences, have not experienced death completely. Death is the irreversible disintegration of the cells that made up the person’s body. It remains an article of faith to trust in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. This is not a belief of Christianity alone. Be aware that resurrection is not the same as resuscitation. The immortality of the soul also runs contrary to Christian understandings or dogmas. If the soul is immortal, who needs a savior to do for us what comes naturally to all?
Mind the gap between life and death. Respect it. A healthy respect for one’s finitude might be just what is needed to lead a life, here and now, that will be remembered joyfully by those who come after us. That would be an immortality that I could tolerate, perhaps even grow to love.
Ever wonder about that return key on your keyboard? That’s for next week.
I am reading you reflections and this one eso ates strongly with me! I have not counted the days! But it will soon be 60 calendar years. That is for the bean counters and the physical reminders that no body is immortal. But my spirit is always young, and yet I am glad that I am no longer 19 .....