Mortality. How does one escape it? How does one begin to accept an imminent fate? But what is mortality? Most know it as death. Others believe it is the end and some believe it is the beginning of something new. Others even tend to wonder if the spirit can die. Some believe that the body is just the vessel for the spirit. once the body dies the spirit is left to move on. Some believe that at the death of the body, the spirit dies with it. I believe something else.
I believe that death is simply a part of life. An unavoidable hump in the path on which we travel. Death, in some way, is a way to end our misery and possibly give misery and woe to others. We, or rather, our body dies as we live. day by day the body grows weaker. The more years we live, the easier the body crumbles. And the way we live our lives is the way we die. As I recall, I think it was Snoop Dogg that said: "we live by the gun so we die by the gun." We die not by our weapon of choice but by the way we chose to live. But that's just the body.
I also believe that there is a spirit. I do believe in ghost, but that's not the spirit I am referring to. And I believe that the spirit lives on as the body dies. The "spirit" I believe in is the essence. One's spirit lives on as long as he and his work is remembered.
Immortality is given to the mind. Not the body. As I believe John Lennon is alive as long as I and countless others sing his songs and adopt his views. I believe that Jose Rizal lives as long as there are writing as he did with principles based on his.I believe that Martin Luther King and Malcolm X will live as long as their dreams are shared and experienced by the young.
The dead poets will be immortal in every hungry young poet's words. The buried musicians will live in the notes of every aspiring musicians song. The revolutionaries live in the minds of the people who survive on their victory. The villains and war lords will live in the minds of the oppressed. The lovers will live in the hearts of the loved. The writers will be reborn every time their writings are read.
One's spirit will die if he stands in the bleachers just to applaud. The spirit will be buried if one chooses to be a voyeur. So get up and make something. Leave a legacy. Leave a mark. Write, sing, rhyme, fight for something, love and be loved. Our work is something that death cannot conquer. Live life and work for life. Appreciate beauty and make beauty. Take a stand for the what you believe in. Our work will be our lives.
So, who wants to live forever?
-Orville "chubby" Basas-
