On the Other Side

We die only once, and for such a long time!
[On ne meurt qu'une fois; et c'est pour si longtemps!]
Le Dépit Amoureux, Act V, sc. iii (1656) ~ Moliere (1622 – 1673)

Dick Wall: ". . . All Souls Day (Dia de los Muertos) and the celebration that combines Aztec and Catholic rituals to honor the dead. I started reading more about that and was intrigued by reference to the idea that a person dies three times. The first death is described by author Victor Landa as 'when our bodies cease to function; when our hearts no longer beat of their own accord, when our gaze no longer has depth or weight, when the space we occupy slowly loses its meaning.' I cannot pinpoint the hour or the day, but I sense this has already occurred. . . . The second death will be next -- it will come when she draws her final breath and her body is [lowered into the ground, returned to mother earth,] out of sight. . . .

"The final death in the legend -- the third death -- comes when your name is spoken for the last time on earth. After that, you are on the 'other side of eternity.' For most of us, that is a short time."

from Dick Wall's epilogue
to Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening
a memoir by his wife Carol Wall (1951 - 2014)

All Souls Day is also a good time to watch Pixar's Coco, a charming, lively, and surprisingly weighty treatment of Dia de los Muertos and the struggle to cope with "the most definitive death, when there is no one left alive to remember us" (Landa).

Where You Will Go

Days to Remember ~ Paul Detlefsen (1899 - 1986)

The Place

Once in your life you pass
Through a place so pure
It becomes tainted even
By your regard, a space
Of trees and air where
Dusk comes as perfect ripeness.
Here the only sounds are
Sighs of rain and snow,
Small rustlings of plants
As they unwrap in twilight.
This is where you will go
At last when coldness comes.
It is something you realize
When you first see it,
But instantly forget.
At the end of your life
You remember and dwell in
Its faultless light forever.

by Paul Zimmer (b 1934)

Memorial Day ~ 2018

We die only once, and for such a long time!
[On ne meurt qu'une fois; et c'est pour si longtemps!]
Le Dépit Amoureux, Act V, sc. iii (1656) ~ Moliere (1622 – 1673)