The Death Dialogue Continues…
Within hours after posting my commentary about how death is portrayed in the mass media and the absdurd, tragic ramifications involved in these messages on a popular blog, I was taken to task by a fellow blogger by the name of Monomia. The following is her words of advice. Although this writer might have had good intentions, I took the instructive writing as a “condescending” presumptuous bowl of crap…But please, read on:
“Try to think bigger than what’s on tv. Lift up out of the choices and influence of corporate media. Don’t let this ratty petty shit get you down. Don’t let the television audience dictate your world. Worse stuff is happening out there, way way worse. This stuff is the snake swallowing its tail along side of the road. Use your imagination. Read literature and look at art for relief. Although it would probably be easy, no one has poisoned the water yet. Atrocities that can be committed have not yet been. That might speak to some kind of morality.”
I will admit when I read the above blog entry I was insenced! How dare a total stranger take on such a superior stance, pretending to know who and what I was all about. My commentary about death in our society as applied to the corporate media - especially in the light of current non-stop news coverage of James Brown and even more so, Anna Nicole Smith - was a quickly written thought that concerned a very general feeling about death in general terms - how we, as a society and culture, value life; how we place some people on pedastals while ignoring others who pass on. In response to Monomia, I wrote the following rebuttal:
“I appreciate your kind-hearted empathy, Monomia…
I am human, a sensitive one at that, and so I admit that on occasion the “ratty petty shit” does get me down. (Okay, I am a cancer). This is part of my humanity.
I am also a male gay artist and poet who lost the love of his life two years ago, due to an accident. My partner, who was only 33 years old and fresh out of the air force fell while he was walking home. He hit his head, went into a coma for nearly three weeks, and although he struggled bravely to prevail, he passed on.
It is my intent, only, not to moan the failings of a cruel society, to ignore the “way way worse” events that occur in this complicated world, but to remind myself and others, that life is significant. It is because of my belief - a naive optimism, really - that I refuse to be a part of the snake-eating-its-own-tail model you describe. As a sensitive person who has dealt with losing a loved one, I am only making comment upon a world that has at times recent lost sight of its innate goodness. I am making comment about absurdity, about tragedy. I am drawing the comparison between those we have celebrated (Anna Nicole Smith, James Brown, Britney Spears) while others we ignore (dying soldiers in Iraq; vulnerable, lonely senior citizens). I was attempting to share a sentiment about the value of life that extends beyond a person’s social strata. I was pointing out a “dark comedy” of sorts, that permeates in a world where the corporate media influences reach to all aspects of life, even to the ending of life. I was contrasting the deaths of “important people” to those we deem as, apparently, unimportant.
I agree with you that nobody has poisoned the water yet: It is up to each and every evolving individual to remain thinking, feeling, aware and vital in spite of the corporate media influence.
My comments were upon the media and how this Big Message, like it or not, does trickle down into the lives, somehow, of us all. Whether we are thinking bigger or thinking smaller, what is important, I believe, is simply thinking - being thoughtful. That is my intent.
Life and death is a most significant occurrence in the totality of existence. It is the ending; it is the beginning. It is the very subject of the greatest art, literature and music. This theme of life and death and the way in which we celebrate or ignore it is a curious study for me. It is one part of existence which pulls us all together in this current plane, for we all will someday face the great unknown. Life and death are the polarities which encompass the world of imagination, for these are the great borders which surround each and every one of us, leaving us wondering what is beyond this plane?
To ignore the culture that swirls about us is practically impossible. My paintings, my poems, even the way I dance when I go out in full “girl” mode are expressions of this imagination. True, the corporate media is akin to a mighty snake swallowing its own tail and I am but one of its sometimes victims. Let me as a painter, writer, creater - take in this sometimes tragic absurd portion of the pop culture, recycle it and reproduce it into something comical, insightful with meaning. Let artists as myself, in a humbled non-egotist state, make expression derived from an entity-energy-source center that is alas, an overwhelming factor (like the coporate media and its influence). Not only must we look at art as relief, but I advocate we dare CREATE IT ourselves, for that is what instills the celebration of a life filled with unbridled imagination!
(By the way, Monomia: thank you for inspiring me to think in terms I have not, from a different perspective. I agree with you - looking at great art is relief!)
