the first church of dirt is currently formulating its official attitude toward death. your input would be greatly appreciated.
maybe what we're after is a way to take just a little of the unpleasantness out of it, to find something to celebrate about the inevitable. fairy
tales about eternally praising Yahweh or perpetual perfect drunk in
Valhalla or getting a do-over as a temple rat &c., however, do not concern the
first church of dirt and will not do. those things may very well come to pass after we
pass, but the first church of dirt must focus on what does happen, not on what might happen.
there is a certain appeal to rotting under and nourishing a peculiar
tree bearing curious and delicious fruit—remind me to make formal
arrangements (though I'm having difficulty choosing the tree)—but, as pleasantly creepy as cannibalism-by-proxy might be, I
would honestly much rather prefer to go on eating that fruit myself and
sharing it with my friends and family.
but if there's going to be fruit, something has to die. dirt is, after all,
largely dead things: dead plants, dead critters of various sizes and
persuasions, dead mountains.
as it happens, it seems everything has to die, whether it will contribute itself to soil or not. even hydras, Turritopsis nutriculas, and lobsters. even this planet and the smallish sun it's stuck to. I'm told that even, at long last, heat will die.
I don't know where that leaves us. the official attitude remains unformulated.
you may be interested:
- Gargamel's cat, Azrael, shares his name with the Islamic Archangel of Death.
- Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis: the expropriation of health resonates quite strongly with all of us at the first church of dirt.
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