I just finished watching Waking Life... the movie finished, and 20 minutes later, I realized I hadn't yet moved from my seat. I was staring at a blue screen on my tv for 20 minutes.
Now, my brain is on fire with all of these random thoughts, and just five minutes ago, they seemed coherent, part of a gestalt
My thoughts have turned to mortality alot lately, more than I'd like to admit. but tonight, they dropped back into mortality, death; but it wasn't morbid in the least - I suppose my thoughts turned to the figurative view of death as transformation from one form to another.
In my life, I've nearly died 3 times (or, I've come close, at least). Once was at the hand of nature (or god, or goddess, or take your pick), once was at the hands of someone else, and once was my own doing.
Now, I don't remember the first time, it was when I was a baby; I was born with pneumonia, and was intubated for a few weeks.
I had actually forgotten about the second time for quite awhile. That one was at the hands of my stepfather. He was a good ole' boy from the south, and when he married my mother, I despised him. We used to argue all the time, and on occasion, he would remind me who the boss was in the house. The last time he ever laid his hands on me, he beat me into unconsiousness. When I came around, the room was dark, and I wasn't sure where I was - for awhile, I thought I was dead, or in a coma; things were very surreal and detached. I couldn't stand, or focus on anything... and the strangest thing happened, I was filled with this sort of inner peace, this feeling that I had just been reborn, that I had regained my grasp on the universe - that this knowledge that I once had but had long lost had returned to me. I was filled with this sense of wonder and amazement.
Over time, that feeling fled me of course. My stepfather rarely spoke more than 2 or 3 words to me at a time after that. He's recently been making phone calls to apologize about how he was with me when I lived with him, he even called my mother to apologize to her. I guess she had no idea what was going on, because he was good with my little brother.
But I digress.
The third time (I nearly over-dosed), I also remember the peace that came the day after, and the feeling that I had regained something that I had lost.
Now, I'm not saying that I've only felt this thing at these particularily painful times in my life, but they've come and gone for as long as I can remember.
But, watching this movie, these mixes of colors painted on my retinas and transmitted to my brain; I started thinking - what if I had actually died on those days, and I've not realized it. I suppose in a way I did die on those days, because I was never the same thereafter, I was reborn, things changed dramatically for me every time.
In a more metaphysical sense, perhaps that feeling denoted a time when I *did* die in some sort of parallel existence, and the goings on in my particular realm of influence brought me close enough to the events at hand that I was able to tap into whatever it is that people experience once they've succumbed to the eternal sleep.
Which brings me even deeper into my thoughts of mortality. I've had this horrible stroke of luck where someone I know dies every year. this year, I didn't know about it when it happened, but an old friend of mine was killed on her way to work a couple of months ago. I just discovered this on friday. it was incredibly surreal to me - I knew her very well for a few weeks right after my first year in college and I had gone back home to visit my family; and we had just spoken after not being in touch for three years. Christ, when did we talk? It must have been February then.
Anyways, she died, and now I think of the possibilities that she may be alive in some sort of parallel universe / other dimension / all things exist at all times sense of the univers. it doesn't make things any easier for me, nor any harder; but instead, curious about all of the possibilities that I *didn't* choose, combined with all of those that I *have* chosen, and I wonder how it could be possible that I'm here today, that I've just watched this movie about almost the very same thing, and the infinite number of possibilities that would have had to have occurred to get here.
Regardless, I do have a point here. all of these things have been dragging me down lately, these silly, unimportant things; when really, life is short, and while I haven't feared death for quite some time, I do fear wasting the time that I have alotted, whether it's 12 hours, 12 weeks, 12 years, or whatever. And now I'm fortunate enough to realize, all I need to make my life complete is to just realize that I'm lucky to be alive. That everything has it's place.
I can respect these small things now, and I do. I take a breath, and I hold it deep in my lungs.
Everything is fine.