IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH?
Certainly a question we’ve all contemplated at one time or another.
Heaven or hell?
Nothing at all?
Reincarnation?
Food for the worms?
It’s our nature to speculate, and the job of the instinctive elements of our character to figure out what will happen so that we might position ourselves for the best result.
Put this way it seems almost comical.
From Loy: In the forests of the mind
In Chapter Twenty-Six, a character is caught in a life-threatening situation. After framing out the peril in the scene, it occurred to me that with death so close, one might very well take a moment to consider where one was going. Which led to Jormah thinking back to an earlier time when he raised this very question.
I had fun writing this scene. It was a bit tricky, dancing between the known and unknown, but ultimately I was left with a smile and as true an answer as there might be.
Here is an abridged version.
“What happens when we die?” Jormah asked.
Maelo turned to look at the boy,
“An interesting question, but let me ask first. Do you know what your next thought will be?”
“I, I thought I did. But now that I think about it, not until it comes.”
“If you don’t know such a small thing, how can you expect to know such a large one?”
Jormah grew silent. Maelo often answered one question with another.
The Kwaman picked up two sticks.
“This stick is the life of your body, and this one the life of your spirit.”
He placed them on the ground, one crisscrossing the other.
“Where these two touch, body and spirit converge. This is the place we call Jormah. Tell me what else you see.”
Jormah studied the sticks, searching for the Kwaman’s message.
“Both spirit and body begin separately and end separately?”
“Possibly. But if so, what does that tell you?”
“I know where my body will end.”
“Do you?”
“But I don’t know where my spirit will.”
“I see. And what is your question?”
“Can we reach beyond the death of the body to where the spirit resides? Is there some secret buntra, [mantra], to guide us?”
“There is no buntra that I know of. Although many have tried.”
“And what did they find?”
Maelo shrugged. “Those who discovered the truth, never returned.”
“Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.” — George Santayana
Todd David Gross is the author of the award-winning Loy series. A Dystopian Fantasy that leans into “Mystical Realism” to explore the nature of man.
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In a past life, Todd David Gross had an extensive background in music and was a veteran of such rock groups as The Burning Sensations, The Band Next Door, and The Shout! He performed primarily on bass, sometimes keys, sang, wrote songs, hauled equipment and performed in downtown NYC clubs, (usually after 2 a.m. on a work night), hauled equipment back, and sometimes saw the sun rise.
