Written September 17, 2007
I’ve always promised that I would take a minute out of my “busy”
schedule to appreciate all the people I’m fortunate enough to call
Friend, to in some small measure translate the experiences I have shared
with each one of you and the incredible joy I’ve derived from every
second of every chill session, jammie convo, games of touch at kops
fields, fb wall-to-wall, arb encounters in the food court, beach 'n
hubbly jams and all the nights out that honestly would have meant
nothing without the mates who were there to help create and preserve the
memory’s of those nights.
Coming up to the end of a year that
will see most of us graduating and embarking on our respective journeys
into the working world and all that comes with it, I thought it
appropriate to make my hearts' salute to you all in the only way I know
how; I wish I could paint a wall mural on the high-way or pen a song but
alas the gods have chosen to impart those gifts to others.. so in the
absence of any other medium of expression I will use what I have been
told I have some skill with, words..
Nearly losing a good friend
and comrade in the fight against the tyranny of social suppression (you
know who you are) sparked an internally directed inquiry into what, in
the conflagration of life's constant exchange of losing and finding, we
will be allowed to carry with us when all else has turned to ash.. a
good eight months later I’m moved to say that I have not found anything
that would have even the smallest meaning to anyone who hasn't lost
someone they love, but I will do my best to convey the conclusion I have
come to none the less.
The fundamental question mankind's
existence has been the source of unquantifiable amounts of discussion
and literature, all with little evidence of a final solution or indeed;
the answer to life, love and everything else. I've come to the
realisation that we all have to find within ourselves the reason for
taking all the crap we have to put up with, sift through it and find
something on which to base the conclusion that in the end , it’s all
worth it. I think it the height of hubris for any individual to assume
(and in far too many cases assert) the right to dictate to others what
to do (or not to do) to be happy or lead what they call a “good life”,
we’ve got enough psycho-social constraint placed on us from birth
without any of that, thank you very much!
“So what has this got
to do with me?” you might be wondering at this point, the answer is
simple; everything! We’ve all, at some level, given thought to the dual
nature of life and death, the inevitability of the latter and the idea
of immortality. I’ve decided that being immortal wouldn’t be all that
much fun unless everyone else was as well (which brings up it’s own set
of problems); watching generation upon generation of friends and family
flower and wither while you subsist would be an empty and hollow
existence. So what alternative is there? I was reading the epitaph
written on my father’s tombstone when I recently went to pay respect to
his memory, and it struck me as strange that the whole of someone’s
existence could be compressed into a sentence of a few lines, possibly
even more shocking was the hyphen between his dates of birth and death;
“that’s it?!” looking back on that moment I gradually came to realise
that ultimately all we have, when the pursuit of fame and material
wealth have been rendered irrelevant by the Great Denominator, is the
memory we leave behind in the hearts and minds of those who have gotten
to know us most intimately.
If ones’ life can be circumscribed
by a single line between to sets of numbers; would it be foolish to
assume that to be the answer to (or at east a plausible stab in the dark
at) the question of the meaning of life? Possibly, but following the
logic of this idea has formed the basis for my recent thought on the
subject and ultimately what you are reading right now. How simple would
life and all the endeavours of the human heart and mind seem if we were
all to live on the premise of being able to dictate how much weight or
gravity is carried by that short line between our two most significant
dates? Think for a second, of being able to write, in the present, what
will be read on your epitaph when your soul no longer has a place to
call home on this plane of existence.. That’s what I’ve been doing for
the past few weeks and let me tell you it’s been a mind trip to beat the
effects of any hallucinogen! (not that I’ve ever used any :P) I’ve
decided to do a bit of the only plausible form of time travelling I’ve
come across and make conscious effort to make sure that the lines (both
kinds) engraved on my bit of granite will be read with fondness and warm
remembrances.
So, you might still be asking what this has to do
with you. I’ll explain in as simple a way as my limited eloquence
allows; if you hold to the idea that all of the experiences we go
through, consciously and otherwise, are all recorded in a part of our
minds called our souls, and that this part of us is what traverses the
boundaries of this world when we leave it, it becomes almost painfully
obvious that our memories, and those others have of us, is the most
important thing in the world! (There is evidence in psycho-analytical
research that lends weight to this idea; it’s all more scientifically
phrased but the logical parallels are hard to ignore, so I’m not just
sucking my thumb on this one ^_^ ) The sights, sounds, smells,
sensations of touch and taste all form a single image that is recorded
in crystal clarity and stored in our memory banks for us to recall, with
varying degrees of ease, at any time we want to! With this in mind, it
makes perfect sense to me to flood this part of our minds with as many
‘good vibes’ memories as we can, ‘cause later in life all we’ll have are
those memories we’ve created along the way.
There’s so much unnecessary
shit we are forced to trudge through because of the socio-economic
system we live in, things we may have no real desire to do (at the time)
or remember later on. Shining to eclipse these with the brightness and
fervour of a million suns are all the memories made with friends and
family; of unadulterated, unconditional love; glowing serenity, peace
and contentment… these are what I hope will figuratively form the line
between 25/02/1986 and the day that I take my last breath. In the past
few years (especially the last three) i’ve been lucky enough to find a
whole treasure-trove of friends (some of whom have become like family)
to help create these gems with, and if you’re reading this, you are one
of them. This is my way of saying, in quite a few more words than I
originally intended, that it’s been f#&@ing awesome jamming with
you!! A slightly sensationalised translation of the meaning of the Hindu
greeting 'namaste' reads a little something like this,
"I honour the place within you where the entire universe resides,
the place within you of love and light, of peace and truth where, when you are
in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us."
I
wasn’t entirely sure of the meaning of this until last week, and that
in itself lead to the realisation that I may never truly understand the
full import of the phrase, but I thought it an appropriate ending to
this salutation. Whether we see each other as often as we’d like to, or
stick to the plans we make to hook up, I want you to know that, from my
heart of hearts, I honour you.
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