This WAS Us: Death in the Evening.

Depictions of a life, long lived, like that of a man whom paints his picture; not like the pictures one would find in a hotel for those are too perfect, too temporary, too cliché in their color schemes, paint strokes done by machine, lacking uniqueness or flaws, mechanical, cold, hard; but the ones found in a crack house, the modern versions of Picasso for the authors of their domains are no longer with us and insignificant until death and some sycophant determines that these are the highest of arts for they represent death; conveyed as the painful representations they are in the way they are, here, for us all, an inevitable reminder that the world as we want it to be, unable to be, and therefore we are left to take what was given by those who lived, and their representation of death while living; now immortalized as simply, death. 

(My Hemingway attempt) 

The dad from This is Us, Moses from, well, The Bible, Leonidas from 300, Troy from the Legend, what do all of these people have in common, despite only one being a real person? They all died. Much like most people, for you can never say, "all" for some fear of missing that one lost soul scavenging the earth for eternity as a damnation from Heaven, or that Heaven could be on Earth, in a part we have not yet met in a time we do not see, everybody dies. However, for some, death seems to bring more about their life than when they were actually alive. 

In the popular TV show, This is Us, (spoiler alert, kind of) the father figure dies, recently, but in the past, like a reflection of HOW it happened, for the timetables are a bit skew. However, the family grew from what he did with his time here more after he was memorialized in their hearts through the perfection only death can bring about. As adults, the characters seem to portray their father as this “perfect” man whom when he battled and beat his demons, he was a, "naturally great father." Again, in death he was remembered as such, for in life he struggled. In the trenches of fatherhood, he drank excessively, took time off from both family and work, and though the children were young, he was absent for much, while he worked at his, “manly” job. 

Moses did many great and unfathomable things, undoubtedly so, however, as I so audaciously write these words, he had his earlier moments in life where he questioned God, directly in fact, face to face, unlike any man who has ever had a conversation with God ever. In his death, we remember Moses, the man, for what he did, overall. This, as Ash Wednesday is upon us, and the reminder of the Israelites, and the Passover, and the journey across the desert, the parting of the seas, and the courage and determination it took to stand up to his own demons and opposing peoples. Yes, Moses did amazing things, as Christ was his master, driving Moses further into what other men will remember as greatness, what I see as even the most flawed of us useful in the larger picture. 

A further departure from the true story of Moses is the untrue story of the 300 soldiers who fought off the entire Persian Army for long enough to reinforce a stand for challenging the "great" army. Leonidas was their leader and a legend, literally, whom fought, led, and eventually died a Spartan warrior, only to bring about a larger impact than if he would have lived. It was the final scene as his arrow cuts the Persian god-man that instills hope in other countries to band together and take down this massive army of what was depicted as immortals and other mythological creatures. 

Characters exist throughout time, both true and false, only to be recalled back into the ground or the Heavens in which they came. For we, mostly, all die and the world keeps spinning, time keeps moving and stories linger among us, more significant than the man, or woman, themselves. For in death we are truly immortalized. What is more important to me, what seems to keep me up at night, isn’t me as a person, this flesh and bone, but the message I convey, the truth I want others to see that exists, the taste of something others might want more of. I am nothing special, and according to biology, neither are you, neither was anyone else when it comes to the man’s actions or accomplishments. What makes a man unique is the work done through them, what they contributed back to the Devine purpose of the Higher power, used as a tool for continued progress in one way or another. Sometimes, this happens in death, other times, the life’s work is what we discuss. 

I know for me, I continue to journey through the works of C.S. Lewis and I feel this man as alive as ever. Not because I have seen his flesh and bone, no, I barely know what he looks like, but because the message that he allowed to come through him depicted all any man could have wanted; I want more of what he had. I would be so blessed to die a death of significance, however it is not my plan that matters, It is His.

My work, regarding Muscle Dysmorphia, support for both eating disorders and body image disorders in men, sold Here.  With hope that this work can produce while I am living. 

God Bless.