Boze, this is one of the best pieces I've ever seen on Substack.
The good news (as I understand the concept from high school physics) is that energy is never lost, only transformed. "I am" cannot become "I am not" just because the skin is sloughed off. It just becomes "I am (something different, but maybe somehow even more myself.)"
"Unknowable", yes, technically speaking. Not like 2 + 2 +4. But too many mystics, reliable reporters, as it were, have seen it to waste too much time doubting it. Pascal's wager and all that.
I'm in tears as I finish this, amazed at how you've woven these threads together. I know this is why I have been drawn to Hospice patients for so long...ultimately, I'm just trying to grapple with the reality of the death of loved ones. And that is the crux of the matter, isn't it: this person I love simply *cannot* suddenly *not be*; it is against all we know of life and love and the infinite complexity of the soul and the universe. Of the beauty of it all, and the poignancy. This does such justice to the ache and the unknowns...thank you for this, Love ♡
Powerful writing and insights. A lifetime's experience put down on paper here. I have terminal cancer and it's been a rough life. I'm fine with life ending for me, but I grieve for those who love me and will miss me. I believe like Dana in another comment, that there is an energy in us that spreads out and continues. As a child I remember thinking about heaven, and how it would be so many souls in one place. How big would it have to be? How dull would it be? I imagined the great people I'd heard of all playing golf for eternity lol. And yet, I felt there is a spark to human life. So I imagined that our energy went out of this body, and into plants and animals and who knows what. We don't remain "I", but we remain. Thank you for everything you've shared.
This is one of the most beautiful essays I have read on Substack. Losing my daughter, sister and best friend all within a short period of time, the utter finality of death is a subject I have spent much time contemplating. I have come to believe that their brilliant energy, transformed, is still out there in the universe. And although I am more a realist than spiritual, I sometimes feel that energy surrounding me.
Boze, such a rich and, at times, heart-rending and mind-bending meditation on your dear friend's death, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the penetrating myth that Dickens wrought.
Thanks much for sharing your thoughts and emotions with such delicacy and transparency. And, with you and Tolkien, we can embrace "the long defeat"--in the macrocosmic realm of human history and in the microcosmic realm of our individual lives.
On this vigil of Easter, let's consider Tolkien's words in a letter: "The Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story — and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love."
Thanks so much, Boze, for the wonderful essay on such a great mystery.
I worked on the definitive edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Checking the reading, transliteration, transcription and translation of the Flood Tablet was wonderful. To hold it and read it quite extraordinary.
I’m so glad I read this since it felt a little like hanging out with you - which hasn’t happened in way too long! Michaels mom just passed away so these questions are close to my heart right now. Aeden is worried about what happened to her even though “he knows she is in her new body with God.” Such childlike honestly - we know but we don’t know. Sending lots of love to you, friend!
This was beautiful and brilliant. I have spent the past several years curating stories of death and grief (Dickens was so good at this), but had never considered reading The Epic of Gilgamesh -- until you recommended it. I was SUPPOSED to read it in college, but if I did, nothing stuck. Until now.
Thank you for all the worlds and thoughts and correlations. They matter.
Boze, this is one of the best pieces I've ever seen on Substack.
The good news (as I understand the concept from high school physics) is that energy is never lost, only transformed. "I am" cannot become "I am not" just because the skin is sloughed off. It just becomes "I am (something different, but maybe somehow even more myself.)"
"Unknowable", yes, technically speaking. Not like 2 + 2 +4. But too many mystics, reliable reporters, as it were, have seen it to waste too much time doubting it. Pascal's wager and all that.
I was just coming to make the same comment. This is one of the best essays I've read on Substack.
I'm in tears as I finish this, amazed at how you've woven these threads together. I know this is why I have been drawn to Hospice patients for so long...ultimately, I'm just trying to grapple with the reality of the death of loved ones. And that is the crux of the matter, isn't it: this person I love simply *cannot* suddenly *not be*; it is against all we know of life and love and the infinite complexity of the soul and the universe. Of the beauty of it all, and the poignancy. This does such justice to the ache and the unknowns...thank you for this, Love ♡
Powerful writing and insights. A lifetime's experience put down on paper here. I have terminal cancer and it's been a rough life. I'm fine with life ending for me, but I grieve for those who love me and will miss me. I believe like Dana in another comment, that there is an energy in us that spreads out and continues. As a child I remember thinking about heaven, and how it would be so many souls in one place. How big would it have to be? How dull would it be? I imagined the great people I'd heard of all playing golf for eternity lol. And yet, I felt there is a spark to human life. So I imagined that our energy went out of this body, and into plants and animals and who knows what. We don't remain "I", but we remain. Thank you for everything you've shared.
This is one of the most beautiful essays I have read on Substack. Losing my daughter, sister and best friend all within a short period of time, the utter finality of death is a subject I have spent much time contemplating. I have come to believe that their brilliant energy, transformed, is still out there in the universe. And although I am more a realist than spiritual, I sometimes feel that energy surrounding me.
Boze, such a rich and, at times, heart-rending and mind-bending meditation on your dear friend's death, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the penetrating myth that Dickens wrought.
Thanks much for sharing your thoughts and emotions with such delicacy and transparency. And, with you and Tolkien, we can embrace "the long defeat"--in the macrocosmic realm of human history and in the microcosmic realm of our individual lives.
On this vigil of Easter, let's consider Tolkien's words in a letter: "The Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story — and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love."
Thanks so much, Boze, for the wonderful essay on such a great mystery.
I worked on the definitive edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Checking the reading, transliteration, transcription and translation of the Flood Tablet was wonderful. To hold it and read it quite extraordinary.
Superb, powerful piece.
I’m so glad I read this since it felt a little like hanging out with you - which hasn’t happened in way too long! Michaels mom just passed away so these questions are close to my heart right now. Aeden is worried about what happened to her even though “he knows she is in her new body with God.” Such childlike honestly - we know but we don’t know. Sending lots of love to you, friend!
Love to you as well - I owe you a longish email!
My uncle passed away this week and now all my Internet journeys keep leading me to death.
I know it's always around me every day. I'm just hyper aware right now.
This was beautiful and brilliant. I have spent the past several years curating stories of death and grief (Dickens was so good at this), but had never considered reading The Epic of Gilgamesh -- until you recommended it. I was SUPPOSED to read it in college, but if I did, nothing stuck. Until now.
Thank you for all the worlds and thoughts and correlations. They matter.
Wonderful essay. Thank you.
Beautifully written. Thank you.
Thanks for this lovely essay.
Nothing to add. As I approach my 70s it captures a great many of my own inchoate thoughts.
And the Sanders version is way out of date.