In Remembrance of Queen Mama Bubbles, Ras ESP McPherson, PhD, and Others Who Have Preceded us.
By Ras Don Rico.
Two notable, beloved, and valuable members of one part of my global community
‘joined the Ancestors’ recently, and their ‘transitions,’ their ‘passings,’
their ‘home-going’ have again brought various ramifications of our
(un)certainties to the forefront of the thoughts of this particular community
of mine.
My use of various euphemisms in quotes, to indicate an unavoidable part of
life, is a deliberate and necessary device to suggest, in words, the very real
challenges that we, you, and I – or as members of the Rastafari Community say,
“I and I” (or, “InI”) – all have to deal with at some point.
Truly it is said, Death is no respecter of persons; it is implacable.
As it is in many other cultures, there is something in our individual and
collective subconscious that struggles – often successfully – against the
rational part of even our ‘modern’ brain. Against the ancient and instinctive
terror of dying, Rationality strives; insisting bravely against fear and
uncertainty, that to actually voice the name of a thing does not necessarily
give it any more power than it already has, or doesn’t have.
To most human beings, though, that is literally cold comfort. There has not
been enough time, even after millions of years, nor enough science, to remove
the fear-inducing awesomeness of Death’s apparent finality.
Of course, the word ‘apparent’ is a deliberate offering of hope; an offering
retrieved from the same source as both spiritual and scientific origins. And
because Hope springs from the same mystically bottomless and inexhaustible pool
from which both our spiritual and scientific assurances (such as they are)
arise, rationality logically demands that faith be respected for its own sake.
Without faith (under-girded by evidence), for example, that the sun will likely
continue to rise and set over many generations to come, we would likely be
totally immobilized by fear and hopelessness.
Fear and frustration and sorrow comes to all of us; and with death, also some
mourning. But Hope and Faith travel together, riding to the rescue as true
saviors. Moreover, as a comforting empathy, we notice that it is not only us
‘humans’ who experience a shared sense of loss; many other animals apparently
do also, and it is clear that they also grieve. Mourning, evidently is a shared
trait; one that we humans, in customary our linguistic chauvinism, refer to as
being ‘humane.’
To inject some so-called ‘gallows humour’ into the somberness: It is easy to
imagine that in the face of death, especially our own, such chauvinism as
mentioned above usually seeks a different abode, hastily. It is imaginable that
Pride also exits the mind before this particular Fall.
Indeed, ‘death,’ or ‘transition,’ or ‘transcending’ – or whatever term our
particular culture applies – that inevitable rite of passage impartially
humbles us, and probably laughs at us all, in our pride-filled, self-centered
fear, too.
Maybe one day, we will all learn to make Death merely a joke shared, with a
no-longer frightening, no-longer grim, Reaper.
Because, when death, or the ‘time of transition’ comes to near to us, and when
it comes for us personally, it is our culture, and whatever level of mystical,
spiritual, religious, or philosophical strength and support with which that
culture has infused us, that will/does provide us with meaning, understanding,
and provide what coping mechanisms we deploy to deal with that still-sad and
inevitable reality.
And who knows? Maybe we humans, along with all other life, will have the last
laugh, ultimately.
The universe allows hope of a future for all things…except
Nothingness…apparently.
Meanwhile, we I think we can agree with the Rasta wit who said:
“Reincarnation? Possibly. Resurrection? Maybe. Re-cycling? Well,
Definitely!”
***
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