Here today...gone tomorrow

I can plan work but I can never plan in my personal life. I have always felt pretty inadequate about that. The fixation of human kind to plan is pathological. Some of us do plan for today, tomorrow and a rainy day. But my question is how much risk can we factor - in? Death, disease, calamity we try to look in a stoic way and create insurance policies to safeguard our loved ones. But what about the dreams and potential of the person lost? How do you safeguard that?

In a freak accident an acquaintance passed away this weekend. He had a tumbling fall while in the shower and despite all efforts to revive him turned out to be useless as he was declared "brought- dead" after couple of hours at the hospital. And he was all of 44. Full of life and energy, trying to usher in some changes in the society in his own way. His achievements will live after him I am sure but will his dreams is my question? My heart goes out to his loved ones in this moment of bereavement and loss but I keep asking myself why? Why should it happen to someone so young? Why should it happen to someone who had so much more to give? Why should it happen to someone who had a vision?

Another loss for the craft of acting was that of Heath Ledger this year. He was an actor full of promise and years to go but was taken away from the world of cinema for ever at the tender age of 29, does it make sense at all? His sensitive portrayal in "Broke back mountain" moved me beyond words and he recreated the magic in "The Dark Knight" again, what a passing away gift for his daughter and ex- wife. But to believe that Heath Ledger won't come back to life on silver screen again makes me question ourselves again shouldn't we stop planning and start living? To me it seems the only way and I don't know if I will live to see the next moment. You could call me hedonistic and self serving but in reality "right now" is all I have...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Its a very unfortunate incident indeed, for someone so young to pass away without reason, accidents are so un-reasonable... but though I can empathise with the feelings with which you have penned down your thoughts, I dont completely think its useful not to "plan" ... in life impoderables will always be the exciting and sad factors, without them we might be like robots... so we plan, but we need to be flexible to alter, modify and even change as life evolves... death is a reality as much as life is, so a little caution is always needed, take risk but with some measures, as what you do or dont do, can and will effect people you leave behind, most often the people you love most...
illusions said…
You're right too plan a little does not hurt and I guess us humans would like to believe that we are in CONTROL of some situation or the other but in reality it can't be far from the truth.
Pretty depressing read. But true. It also shows that we are rapidly moving towards the 40s. Which is when Death Anxiety shows more than just sporadically and we start recognising it as a disturbing element in our existence. And in another 20 years time we would have accepted the inevitability of this wonderful sublime unknown!
Srobona RC said…
The moment you acknowledge that you have no control over your life and death can happen anytime - you are actually breaking free of a huge constraint. The question is whether the majority of us are actually ready for it? Brings to mind the lyrics of the song "Live like you are dying". This realization is probably what it takes to actually live live to its fullest and not always for a happy ending - Jack London's life comes to mind.

Anyways, lately, I have been hearing the news of a lot of young people dying of accidents or sudden illness and discussing a similar topic with people.

MY philosophy in life has always been no regret. So if i decide not to do something, I make sure I am totally committed to that decision. IF I cannot, then damn everything to hell and go for it. Tackling as many things to do before i die as time permits- thats all I can expect from life.
Parvinder Singh said…
The thing with death is that it does not exist in our schemes of things, world view, plans etc. and that allows us to surmount the two basics of biological existence.

The beginning and an end. When it happens, you can almost feel the unease among the living, as life is for the living, and living alone.

Incidentally, thinking about death can actually add a lot of value to the act of living.

Tibetan tradition, for instance talks about death as a concept that explains life and its cycles.

The Egyptians created an entire universe of the dead, parallel to the universe of living.

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