Are You Immortal Or Insanely In Denial?
“Self-love is the elixir of an immortal heart”
I Am A Mere Immortal, Or Am I?
I've figured out that sometimes writing here requires a certain level of risks or a gamble of sorts. Especially when your views may not be congruent with everyone else's but then that's what makes us unique in our existence. With what Marvel comics has bestowed on us with regard to super heroes as young children, there is sort of a fascination with the untouchable. By that I mean super powers, magical tendencies or even a mere immortal. The other day I spoke on super powers and here I am again today thinking about a matter that, in my mind, is hinging upon something in the universe that surely the average person is not pondering. If I may preface this post, you will note that religion will not be a prominent factor. Today is not about being heavenly or hellish.
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Are you Immortal?
Most people shy away from talking about death and dying or simply put, mortality. Today I wondered exactly when it was in my life time that I figured out that I was not immortal; instead, a mere mortal. As children we have no idea about the fact that someday we're going to die much less the manner in which we'll be called home to glory. When was it that I crossed over into the fact that some day the inevitable will happen? I know it wasn't before the age of 5.
I can remember always telling my grandmother that I knew she would never ever die. In fact, I made her promise that she would live forever. That's just how much I adored her. I couldn't imagine living my life without her present. It never occurred to me that the day would come that she would be gone. That was, at the time, my biggest fear. My grandmother raised me from birth till my 5th birthday; and each night knelt with me to recite, "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep"
THAT person, my grandmother. GONE? Even when we parted ways as I went off with my mother and new father to live, a day didn't go by that I didn't think of her and long for her reassuring love. Even into my adulthood, her immortality was present in my mind until the day she died in 1999 at 94 years of age.
Today, I struggle with the fact that me and my loved ones are not immortal. I struggle with the idea that my dear grandmother did not have the opportunity to teach me that very important lesson about mortality and the importance of how we might be together again in the future and that absolutely no one lives forever. I know that her faith would have shone through me. Opps, I spoke on religion but then it was "her" faith that did not penetrate me.
As to when I realized that there's no such thing as immortality? I'm wondering if I have reached a point of acceptance even into my adulthood. Have you?
Prince, A Special Tribute
At the time I began writing this post a few years back, it had not been reported that Prince, the musical genius had died at the young age of 57. Hearing the news on my way to lunch on that Thursday afternoon, I had to pull off into the local Starbucks. My hands were shaking and I was prayerful that the rumor mill had gone astray again. Minutes later I read that the legendary Prince had died. Of course, I didn't know him personally but it's just something about When Doves Cry while it's Raining Purple that makes you stop and think about the fact that mortality is for real.
It is something about those dying around you nearby your age that rings, "we are getting closer to accepting that mortality is reality". Prince, may you rest in peace!
At what age did you realize that you are not immortal? I mean is the answer as simple as, "when did you stop believing in Santa Clause and the tooth fairy?"
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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday Post hosted by Kristi from http://www.findingninee.com and Michelle Grewe of http://crumpetsandbollocks.com/ focusing on "The Biggest Fear I've Ever Had To Face....."
Fran
Photo courtesy: Kenn W. Kiser-Tombstone via MorgueFile