Mourning the Echoes of Thunder

The feelings that accompany death are deeply profound and uniquely inexplicable for those that are in mourning. No matter how many times death has made its presence known, it still seems to elude our rationale. It never really makes sense, and I don’t think it’s supposed to. As humans it is in our very nature to be in constant pursuit of answers and to always find ourselves caught up in the revolving door of the ominous, “why’s”? Why are we here? Why is life so painful? Why do the ones we love leave us before we are ready to say goodbye? I suppose, these kinds of philosophical questions, these spouts of internal discourse, are an unfortunate duality of cognizance.

   

These questions and uncertainties usually present themselves in the form of grief. Grief is terribly encompassing parasite. It invades our thoughts and feelings, as our fragile minds attempt to make sense out of the unfathomable. Eventually, we begin to realize that the loss of life cannot be measured in any literal increments, it can only be weighed out by its impact and its reach.

Existence is an endless search for inspiration. And there is a volatile combination that occurs when the correct soul is provided the opportunity to exist inside of the correct vessel, at just the perfect time. This phenomenon is referred to as, “lightning in a bottle” and it’s the closest thing to perfection we will ever know. When someone amongst the ranks of the rest of humanity is able harness their own unique “bolt of lightning”, the rest of us are usually in awe of their incredible abilities. But all of that is for not, if the “awe” that is created by one person’s abilities is unable to become manifested into another person’s inspiration. The act of emulating those that are able to inspire us, is what continues to perpetuate our mental and emotional evolutions.

Some people are able to transform something intangible (the human spirit) into something real, something concrete, something legendary. These people, because they are able to do what the average person cannot, are viewed as heroes and icons. And the loss of an icon is no small drop in the bucket. It’s more than losing a person at that point, an entire piece of someone’s culture is now missing.

 People do not come out in droves to mourn the loss of someone they have no connection towards. That wouldn’t make any sense. It’s much deeper than that. An emotional connection does not have to coincide with a physical interaction. Works of art that stimulate the senses, feats of athleticism that invoke passion and stoke the competitive spirit, and genuinely sincere acts of humanity are all universally inspiring and communicative. In other words, the connection felt is derived from an adoration for the accomplishments or creations of others.

 Those that felt the influence of these icons who have passed on, aren’t necessarily grieving the loss of the person. They are disheartened at the loss of future achievements, the loss of unfulfilled potential, and most of all, they mourn the loss of the inspiration that was still to come. They lost a part of their individual soul that had been shaped by the prolific magnitude of another person’s existence.

So, to say that someone is unjustified in taking a moment to honor the life of someone that they never met in the flesh, is blatantly ignorant. Turning on your television and seeing hordes of people gathered to honor the life of another human being shouldn’t fill you with antipathy or misunderstanding. Rather, allow the breadth of someone else’s life serve as a reminder that you too, possess the potential to touch the souls of your fellow man. Who knows? You may very well be the next white-hot bolt of lightning to become encapsulated and change the world. And when you dissipate into nothing more than transferred energy, as lightning does, then you will be remembered by your resonance. We mourn the echoes of thunder, because we feel empty in the absence of lightning.