Nobody Dies

We can choose to grieve about life and death, or we can recognize that those no longer with us still exist, even if only in our memories or as mental schema.  We can visit and revisit the times those persons lived as much as we like by simply recalling our memories, and we can even engage in new experiences with the departed by using our imaginations. Imagine someone you once loved reading this very post right now along with you.  Voila! - a new memory.

It's really no different than with the living.  Our only experience of those still alive but not immediately in our presence exists as memories of recent encounters and as imagination. Why are the departed any different just because the burden of creating new memories falls on us alone?

Simone Weil once said that imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

Our world is what we make of it, what we imagine it to be.  We can imagine our world to be an oppressive, brutal force out to get us, or we can acknowledge the life-affirming aspects of our world and consider all the kindnesses and generosity that's been shown to us.  We can either focus with black-and-white judgement on the petty wrongs we believe were done to us or we can color that perception with green trees, red roses, and blue skies.

It's your choice, but at the risk of sounding like we're wearing rose-colored glasses, we'll take the technicolor view of this beautiful world.