In case no one told you today:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Life is decay
\n\u2022 You will always be truly alone
\n\u2022 You are expendable
\n\u2022 Nothing happens for a reason
\n\u2022 You\u2019re doing to die
\n\u2022 You will be forgotten
\n\u2022 It will be like you never existed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My initial reaction was that the first six lines are true but incomplete and the final line is blatantly false. But the more I think about it, the less I think \u201ctrue but incomplete\u201d is an adequate response. Because as a Pagan I\u2019m committed to the idea that while life is difficult and often painful, ultimately it\u2019s beautiful and good.<\/p>\n
Is this just a different religious outlook? Someone shared it from a Buddhist<\/a> humor group, and while I know a little about Buddhism<\/a> I\u2019m far from an expert on it. So I ran it by UU Buddhist and fellow Patheos blogger James Ishmael Ford<\/a>. His opinion matches mine: while there are \u201cBuddhist-ish\u201d concepts in it, it\u2019s pretty much nihilism presenting as dark humor.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t some heresy that needs to be stamped out. If you got a laugh out of it, great. But it presents an opportunity to examine some deeper religious and philosophical thoughts, and that\u2019s a conversation worth having.<\/p>\n We\u2019re born, we grow, we live, we decline, we die. So does every other living thing in this world, in one way or another. \u201cLife is decay\u201d is no more accurate than \u201clife is birth\u201d or \u201clife is growth.\u201d<\/p>\n Life is a bargain. We get growth, happiness, and joy. We also get decay, sadness, and pain.<\/p>\n Some say that without the bad we would never appreciate the good \u2013 without death, life would have no urgency and thus no meaning. Perhaps that\u2019s true \u2013 I\u2019m not sure. What I am sure of is that without change things get boring in a hurry, and that\u2019s no way to live.<\/p>\n Life isn\u2019t a fair bargain. Some get much and others get little. Our job \u2013 if we choose to accept it \u2013 is to make sure everyone gets enough. Accepting that job is its own reward.<\/p>\n Humans are not solitary creatures. We live in families, communities, and nations. If we have no family or if our family abandons us, we make new families.<\/p>\n But even if we are cut off from our fellow humans, we\u2019re still surrounded by other living persons: animals, plants, natural features and forces. And our Gods and ancestors are always close to us.<\/p>\n We have the choice to accept these connections or to refuse them. If you want to be alone, you can \u2013 most of the time, anyway. I like being alone, but I\u2019ve been alone a little too much lately. If some of the connections are closed to me now, I need to focus on the ones that are always available.<\/p>\n On one hand, the nihilist meme is right: all individuals are ultimately expendable. Long term survival in the material world is for groups: families and species and such. And just because you\u2019ve ended up on the good side of life\u2019s unfair bargain so far doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll continue to be on the good side indefinitely.<\/p>\n But while these collective entities have a life of their own, they are all composed of individual persons. A nation may be more than its people, but without its people it ceases to exist. You and me and everyone else are necessary, and because we are necessary we are valuable.<\/p>\n I detest the phrase \u201ceverything happens for a reason.\u201d It assumes there\u2019s a grand plan somewhere in the universe, and that implies monotheism. I see no evidence there\u2019s a master plan anywhere. My response to \u201ceverything happens for a reason\u201d is \u201cyes, and the reason is that you make bad decisions\u201d (which isn\u2019t always true either but usually conveys my dissatisfaction with that trite clich\u00e9).<\/p>\n This is a good thing. Because there is no master plan we are free to choose our own paths. Not entirely free \u2013 even those with considerable privilege still have limitations, and we constantly run into other free persons who are bigger and stronger than us, like tornados and viral pandemics.<\/p>\n We are not the pawns of some supreme being, nor of the Many Gods. We are free to choose our own paths and make of them what we will, or what we can.<\/p>\n Here again the nihilist meme is literally true. You are going to die, as every living thing before or after you has died or will die. The question, though, is \u201cwhat is death?\u201d Is it the end of existence? Or is it simply the doorway into a different phase of life?<\/p>\n While there is no proof \u2013 one way or the other \u2013 the evidence of past life memories, near death experiences, and my own ecstatic experiences tells me that consciousness is immortal. I\u2019ve blogged about this on numerous occasions \u2013 perhaps the best one is One Pagan\u2019s Thoughts on What Comes After Death<\/a> from 2017.<\/p>\n Even if I\u2019m wrong and consciousness ends when brain activity ends, we live on in our descendants \u2013 of spirit as well as of blood \u2013 and we live on in our deeds.<\/p>\n I fear dying badly<\/a>, but I do not fear death.<\/p>\n This is another case where the meme is true but incomplete. Fame brings a type of immortality, but only for a few, and only for a while. We all know Julius Caesar, but can you name any of the Roman emperors of the 3rd<\/sup> century CE? (I couldn\u2019t). For the vast majority of us, when those who knew us die, we will pass from active memory.<\/p>\n This is why ancestor veneration<\/a> is such an important part of most religions. I have a short list of ancestors whose names I know \u2013 I speak them on a regular basis. One of my daily prayers is that I may live in such a way as to be worthy of being remembered by those who come after me.<\/p>\n Remember your ancestors, and set a good example so your descendants will remember you.<\/p>\n This is where the meme is \u2013 if you\u2019ll pardon the expression \u2013 dead wrong.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/05\/ducks-05.10.20-01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLife is a process of growth and decline<\/h1>\n
You are never truly alone<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/05\/trees-04.18.20-01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nYou are valuable<\/h1>\n
You are free to choose your own path<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/05\/Seattle-06.17.19-05b.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWe live on<\/h1>\n
We have an obligation to remember those who came before us<\/h1>\n
Even the tiniest actions matter<\/h1>\n
![\"the](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2020\/05\/Spring-2012-02d.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n