On hope and dying
I feel this is an important post, a by product of many months of dedicated thought, reading, feeling, introspection, reasoning and watching all the relevant movies. There is much to be written about - it is very much incomplete and was hastily put up online out of a need to keep some of the thoughts alive and to keep refreshing my memory. It concerns man and this abstract notion called 'hope'. Before you go on - I recommend reading 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus and watching the following movies, many times over, if need be and think seriously about every sentence, scene, song lyric and meaning and apply that to your life.
1. No country for old men
2. O brother where art thou
3. A serious man
Each of these movies is a Coen brothers' masterpiece dealing with a host of issues, moral questions and more importantly the emphasis on hope and death. How does one face one's own demise? Should it be through a reliance on God? On religion ? On what? What happens when all truth becomes lies and there is no hope, absolutely no hope? What next? What is keeping us afloat right now? When you are old and get cancer/heart disease, what are you going to tell yourself about your impending death? How are you going to face this terrifying ordeal, quoting Mersault in The Stranger.
To give you a few examples about hope's importance- let me give you a snapshot of some of my current thoughts - I am hoping secretly, dreaming even that I get to be with this pretty girl with whom I had a minor connection many, many years back, hopes for a job, for love, for a whole bunch of things, many of them being quite unrealistic, to say the very least. Most of these hopes are not even in my consciousness. But, I know they exist. Everything that is keeping me afloat is some form of hope. I live in denial of my death, by hoping and telling myself I have another 30 odd years to live, with hope that there is enough time. As time goes on however, my state of denial does not change. I believed 10 years back that I would not die soon and the exact same hope lives on. I secretly believe/hope I will probably not change for another 100 years. In reality the 'when' one dies does not matter. Hope, however, leads me on. Hope for self protection, hope for an interesting life, hopes for a gazillion other things keep me going. I hope that I control my own path in life and beyond, with not much thought or much capacity to know about the 'beyond'. All this while I discount the fact that life controls me and surely I do not hold the trump cards in this matter. I do not have a say. The vagaries of life will also have their say on everything that lies between now and my dying, just as it happens in those movies.
My mom believes that when she dies, she is, rather her soul, is going to be magically transported to this mystical planet created for her by a spiritual guru. Other people I know want their soul to be carried to heaven/hell. Some others believe they are just reborn. Death is just the beginning, eh? The root of many of these ideas can be traced back to 'hope'. When you hope and believe in permanence of the soul, what else do you need sustenance from to live out the remainder of your life? Your body and mind will be literally breaking apart and yet you will survive till you die, cling on and swim in a pond of hope. There will be bad days and uncertainties, possible ups and downs in your belief system, but with some luck you may not survive too long.
1. No country for old men
2. O brother where art thou
3. A serious man
Each of these movies is a Coen brothers' masterpiece dealing with a host of issues, moral questions and more importantly the emphasis on hope and death. How does one face one's own demise? Should it be through a reliance on God? On religion ? On what? What happens when all truth becomes lies and there is no hope, absolutely no hope? What next? What is keeping us afloat right now? When you are old and get cancer/heart disease, what are you going to tell yourself about your impending death? How are you going to face this terrifying ordeal, quoting Mersault in The Stranger.
To give you a few examples about hope's importance- let me give you a snapshot of some of my current thoughts - I am hoping secretly, dreaming even that I get to be with this pretty girl with whom I had a minor connection many, many years back, hopes for a job, for love, for a whole bunch of things, many of them being quite unrealistic, to say the very least. Most of these hopes are not even in my consciousness. But, I know they exist. Everything that is keeping me afloat is some form of hope. I live in denial of my death, by hoping and telling myself I have another 30 odd years to live, with hope that there is enough time. As time goes on however, my state of denial does not change. I believed 10 years back that I would not die soon and the exact same hope lives on. I secretly believe/hope I will probably not change for another 100 years. In reality the 'when' one dies does not matter. Hope, however, leads me on. Hope for self protection, hope for an interesting life, hopes for a gazillion other things keep me going. I hope that I control my own path in life and beyond, with not much thought or much capacity to know about the 'beyond'. All this while I discount the fact that life controls me and surely I do not hold the trump cards in this matter. I do not have a say. The vagaries of life will also have their say on everything that lies between now and my dying, just as it happens in those movies.
My mom believes that when she dies, she is, rather her soul, is going to be magically transported to this mystical planet created for her by a spiritual guru. Other people I know want their soul to be carried to heaven/hell. Some others believe they are just reborn. Death is just the beginning, eh? The root of many of these ideas can be traced back to 'hope'. When you hope and believe in permanence of the soul, what else do you need sustenance from to live out the remainder of your life? Your body and mind will be literally breaking apart and yet you will survive till you die, cling on and swim in a pond of hope. There will be bad days and uncertainties, possible ups and downs in your belief system, but with some luck you may not survive too long.
Camus describes an alternate method to face death, one that feels right, for now. It is that of knowing that life is hopeless, sticking to this idea with surety, and hence liberating yourself of the pain of death. Mersault is sure about the non-existence of god and gives up every little bit of hope in his life. What is surprising is that while he goes through his ordeal and a lot of pain, he does not find despair at the very end. When one consciously and willingly gives up all hope, is there really no pain and suffering in the end? Possibly not, but there is definitely less suffering that is felt than when we are holding onto hope and watching the rug being pulled from underneath us. As Chigurh in No country for old men quips- 'Of what use is the rule you followed, if it brought you to this'?
posted by srinath at 4:00 PM
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