Author Topic: Daniel finally speaks on the Passing  (Read 4009 times)

Offline Daniel

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Daniel finally speaks on the Passing
« on: January 24, 2008, 06:40:48 pm »
A very wise person once told me... "If something happens to you, and you have the ability to, wait three days to respond." Much can change in three days: the emotional play and inner conflicts, the struggle against survival, the agony of ancestral anguish. Although it has not yet been three days, I feel that I can now offer a valid response.

We who survive when others pass on - we have much to be thankful for, but also much to be saddened by. When one falls who has barely begun to demonstrate that grace to others, we mourn the loss of opportunities in our own lives and in others. This is perhaps what the finiteness of death brings to mind for us: our own mortality is something we must all face, but most of us have concreted our lives against it.

The film Brokeback Mountain has much to say about life, but I believe it has much to say about death as well. Perhaps this is the greatest test for the revelation made by that film: Death is not the end. And whatever existence remains for us beyond physical life is as full of adventure and emotional reality as our lives are now. We have an amazing opportunity on this planet, a chance to bring meaning and fulfillment to our own lives and to the lives of others. There are many tools for doing so, but so many are afraid of reaching out beyond their sphere of protection to either help themselves or help another person. They seem content to take whatever is given to them, rather than striving toward a better existence: an existence which only they themselves can define.

It is with a strange sense of gratitude that I acknowledge the fact that the star that fell from grace was not one such person. He had a story to tell, both as an actor and as a director, and was able to reach out with his art to touch many before his Passing. Anyone who has seen him, even on his worse days, knows that he had much life to give, and happiness to share with others. His life was not void of love for life, or for anyone around him. He used the opportunities he was given to reach out to others, to form close bonds with them, to shape his existence and the existence of the world for the better. It is our solemn and human duty to do exactly the same, even when our weaknesses are attacked.

In the face of our own pride and arrogance, how much more alive do we become when we accept criticism and a realistic kick in the butt? When we struggle with self identity, we turn to others to grant us some small vision that we did not have before. As we are cursing or screaming at the unfairness of life, the understanding presence of others encourages us to yield our own consciousness. We are in the constant process of realizing our greater selves, of becoming more real. We have been very lucky to recognize that in this struggle, we have had a role model to look up to, a living human who seemed to do the same things that we ourselves struggle to do. I do not think any of us were deluded into believing that these life changes were easy to take up, but the fact remained that another had done so. The hope inspired by such a revelation cannot be easily hidden or broken.

Even by the solemn instinct of mourning. Death fades like a shadow in ever-increasing light. In this illusion of final separation, our mourning can try to break the trust in life that we had established... and though we may forget it for a while, it is never taken from us. The surge of life's greatest challenge, the creation of the better self, cannot be daunted by grief or death. And even after death, life's surge continues. I do not think that hope could be so easily bound into a thing of fragile beauty. Elegance carved the bridge between life and death, it links it in our final days, whenever they might be. But in all noble deeds, even in the act of death, the quest for inner greatness, for our true humanity, is never abandoned.....

To think that such a mighty star could fall,
aborts the hope that other stars might rise at all.

High atop the infinite skies glimmer stars
Each certain of uncertain heights
And that amidst the darkness strewn
Tears of heaven blind men's hearts,
Hope made holy in pursuit of life.
Could one man's greatness do so much?
Lift others from their blackened slush
In torrents of nightmare, fears made unknowm.
Falling, falling into darkness.
Fading, fading to eternal night.

And in that sea of furious storms
No light is easily found.
Drops of truth from higher stars
Renew the eternal quest
Ever seeking for truth and beauty
Without which, man is beast.

Lighting the path to the central self
Eternal submission of inner sight,
Draws us away from the storms,
Gently calling us into the night.
Even there, the star glows eternally
Relinquishing its sacred light.

To think that such a mighty star could fall,
Aborts the hope that other stars might rise at all...
But such a star did not go angrily away
It continues to shine brightly in the darkened day.
To lead by example, to lift by inspiration.
To gratify by existence, to strengthen with resolve.
Even in that star's last dying moments,
The breath of life was given freely, even peacefully.

To think that such a mighty star could fall...
But that's not what happened - no, not at all.
Why do we consume what we consume?
Why do we believe what we believe?
Why do we accept what we accept?
You have a body, a mind, and a soul.... You have a responsibility.

Offline louisev

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Re: Daniel finally speaks on the Passing
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2008, 06:58:16 pm »
I don't know what Heath's death has to do with falling from grace, Daniel.  No one has confirmed that he killed himself or had done anything to hasten his own demise, and in fact it looks more and more like a tragic medical situation that led to his death.
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”


Offline Daniel

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Re: Daniel finally speaks on the Passing
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2008, 06:59:34 pm »
"Fall from grace" is a Tolkienesque expression for death.
Why do we consume what we consume?
Why do we believe what we believe?
Why do we accept what we accept?
You have a body, a mind, and a soul.... You have a responsibility.

Offline Lumière

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Re: Daniel finally speaks on the Passing
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2008, 07:01:56 pm »
...
To think that such a mighty star could fall,
Aborts the hope that other stars might rise at all...
But such a star did not go angrily away
It continues to shine brightly in the darkened day.
To lead by example, to lift by inspiration.
To gratify by existence, to strengthen with resolve.
Even in that star's last dying moments,
The breath of life was given freely, even peacefully.

To think that such a mighty star could fall...
But that's not what happened - no, not at all.



Loved  especially this last portion.
Cheers Daniel.

~M 


Offline louisev

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Re: Daniel finally speaks on the Passing
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2008, 07:03:47 pm »
"Fall from grace" is a Tolkienesque expression for death.

that sounds very strange, can you give me a reference for where Tolkien described death as a "fall from grace" ?
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”


Offline Daniel

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Re: Daniel finally speaks on the Passing
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2008, 07:22:10 pm »
It was actually in one of Byron's poems, but I can't find it now, and the English language has subtly changed over the past three centuries, so I have modified the original post to reject any wrong doing since no implication was intended.
Why do we consume what we consume?
Why do we believe what we believe?
Why do we accept what we accept?
You have a body, a mind, and a soul.... You have a responsibility.