Last night I watched a movie I haven't seen for quite some time: John Wayne's final film, The Shootist. It was one of the very few films in which Wayne's character dies.
In brief, the movie is about aging gunfighter John Books (Wayne) who is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. The year is 1901 and the services of gunfighters are on the wane (pun) anyhow. The dying gunfighter goes out with one last gunfight in which not only does he die, but he takes three of his nemeses with him.
In a scene in which Books is talking about his impending demise, he remarks that a person's death is the most personal aspect of their entire lives. That really stuck with me and I kept repeating the thought to myself for the next hour or two.
If you think about, even though it's merely a line from an old movie, it certainly rings true. We come into this world alone and we leave it in the same manner. Regardless of how many people surround us as we go gently into the night, the step through the veil of mystery is ours alone.
I don't how anything else could be more personal than that!!
In brief, the movie is about aging gunfighter John Books (Wayne) who is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. The year is 1901 and the services of gunfighters are on the wane (pun) anyhow. The dying gunfighter goes out with one last gunfight in which not only does he die, but he takes three of his nemeses with him.
In a scene in which Books is talking about his impending demise, he remarks that a person's death is the most personal aspect of their entire lives. That really stuck with me and I kept repeating the thought to myself for the next hour or two.
If you think about, even though it's merely a line from an old movie, it certainly rings true. We come into this world alone and we leave it in the same manner. Regardless of how many people surround us as we go gently into the night, the step through the veil of mystery is ours alone.
I don't how anything else could be more personal than that!!
I've come across a similar line in some Buddhist text about death being a very personal affair.
ReplyDeleteEverything you ever held onto, any idea you had of yourself, of others, all those ideas in your head, beliefs, hang, open to infinity, then extinguish.
The verge of that process, between the realization of death and the moment itself should in many cases be an intensely liberating experience.
I ask anyone who can do this to remain very attentive at the moment they drop off to steep tonight and imagine that this was them passing away for good. Of course it wont be near the same as a true death but I'd bet on a few situations coming of it: Sudden desires to phone a relative or friend and make up for an old grudge, realization of what is really important and some new peaceful views on the world and our path.