At 72, death feels a bit closer each day. It only really comes into focus, however, with the passing of a close friend or loved one. I’ve been running across clips of a song that starts with the words “I’ve been thinking about dying.” Every time I try and look it up, though, I get a message about calling suicide prevention. So glad Big Brother is looking over ny shoulder trying to keep me safe…
I hope your daily deaths are metaphorical. Or orgasms, lol. Isn't that what the ancient Greeks called them? But seriously, I hope you're not actually dying a dozen times daily...
HAW HAW HAW!!! If I were actually averaging a dozen orgasms a day, I'm guessing my outlook would be SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT!!! (smiles bravely, then breaks down sobbing)
Hey Skip, let me learn from you. Describe the “daily deaths” you speak of. I think I might know what you mean (if I’m on your same wavelength), but I always value learning from others their perspectives on dying and death--something our culture does NOT do well at all!
Past that, though, lemme think on how best to nutshell the forms of daily death I enjoy on the daily...
1) THE DAMAGE CHART. As a guy who didn't expect to make it to 30 -- and who turns 67 next month (unless, of course, I die first!) -- I've got a litany of past behaviors that I'd have thought woulda taken me out by now. (Cigarettes, beer in quantity, refusal to wear sunscreen, unsafe sex, a trillion other reckless or risky behaviors.) And though I got off incredibly easy on the sexual front (see, TWO can play the double entendre game!), the other ones clearly left ticking time bombs that I'm aware could go off at any minute. So that comes up at least a couple of times a day.
2) LITTLE ACCIDENTS. A near-car crash here, a near-electrocution there, a near-losing-my-balance-and-falling-down-the-stairs on the side...every day, at LEAST one little stupid thing reminds me of how close I am to a totally stupid, ignominious death.
3) PISSING OFF THE WRONG PERSON. We live in a culture where death threats are as common as fruit flies these days. Insult the wrong orange person, or support the wrong cause, and you've invited to daily EXERNAL reminders that other people would be happy to take care of that whole dying thing for you. At the very least, this encourages daily doses of diplomatic tact. Which is not a bad thing!
4) HAVING SEEN TOO MUCH. As I mentioned a couple days ago in BLOOD IN THE AIR, I've witnessed a lot of violence. It sticks with you, every bit as much as those decades of smoking half-a-pack a day or more.
5) MY FRIENDS, DROPPING DEAD LEFT AND RIGHT. The older you get, the more accustomed you get to losing those you love. And one of these days, it will be me.
6) THE UNDERTOW. As discussed at length in HAPPINESS TIPS, there's a part of me that wants to die. That says, on the daily, "Just give it up, man. What's the fucking point? YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE DEAD BY NOW, AND GOOD RIDDANCE." That voice is an asshole, but I can't say it's not persistent. Nary a day goes by where I don't have to slap that fucker down at least once.
7) WHAT I LEAVE FOR THOSE I LOVE. Posterity is probably the one that haunts me most. Do I leave this place even slightly better than I found it? Are there things I need to do, to say, to share in any way, that need doing/saying/sharing? Will I fucking get around to it before it's too late?
So THERE'S A COUPLE! And honestly, that's MORE than a dozen a day! HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE!!!
HOT DAMN that piece was so good! I read the first one, HAPPINESS TIPS FOR THE PROFOUNDLY HAUNTED, and I had to sit down and marinate in every part. EVERYBODY should read it!
Skipp, I’m so grateful you wrote and as expected, I have learned from you. I will read those posts you referenced and am looking forward to doing so. And I thank you as well for allowing my humor and even for playing along (I see your double entendre and will re-raise you one later. WAIT, did I just do that?). Maybe you’ve already done so (for a couple I know you have), but each of these points sound like their own essay—the emotion behind the words also makes me believe you are a poet.
Well, thank you again. I’m grateful you took my initial response seriously as that was how I intended it to be. May you be well today, my friend.
I catch myself contemplating my own mortality from time to time. To me, however, this has the opposite outcome — instead of making me create at my best, it makes me depressed. This is why, for me, the saying 'live every day as if it were your last' never worked. If I knew today were my last day, I couldn’t care less about living it to the fullest. What for? I’ll be dead tomorrow anyway. All that said, I really enjoyed your piece.
Thanks, Silvio. And I'm sorry that's the outcome you're experiencing. I'm a big fan of writer (and wife of Jon Batiste) Suleika Jouad, who is young and on her third bout with leukemia. She says we should live each day like it's our first, seeking out moments of play and curiosity. And if the idea of mortality is depressing, I encourage looking into Day of the Dead and practicing that. I used to be scared of death, but getting funky with it, as Mexicans do with Dia de los Muertos, has taken the edge off 100%.
Summer, to echo others, thank you for writing on death. No secret our culture doesn’t do it well--the talking of it at least. And we have so few elders to teach us the skills of dying, death, and grief. Things that I’ve attempted to grapple with through my own writing as well. Anyone who can “go there” with such heart and depth is a kindred spirit. Thank you! Learning about your life experiences as well, as a cultural anthropologist, has also been fun.
Awesome. thanks so much. As a Spanish teacher, I always dive deep into Day of the Dead with my students every fall. I'm not kidding when I say it has completely changed how I view death and dying, just for the reasons you mention, how our culture approaches it in such a negative, binary way.
I contemplate death all the time, I sometimes feel like a magnet for it, having lost so many people I have loved. For a long time I was terrified to actually fully love because I thought that as soon as I did they'd be taken from me. I now know that I'm not cursed, and that love is my superpower because of all the death I've survived. I am far more present now that I have ever been and this is intentional.
I'm currently writing my memoir, I have been for years now, and your question of Why is one I think I'm still trying to answer. I keep coming back to I want people to know they're not alone and that connection is possible, that you can come back from things, even things you don't think you will survive. I'm a two time suicide attempt survivor - I should not have come back from attempt #2, but here I am. I got as close to death as you can and it did not take me. I didn't cheat death, I just wasn't ready to go yet.
Life is fickle and funny sometimes, but I live for serendipitous moments, that's where the good stuff lives.
Thank you for this today. I feel like it is exactly what I needed to read at this exact moment!
Oh wow, Mesa! Your depth really comes through in your writing talent. The people who have gone through the most are the most baddass, and you prove my point. It's that ability to have gone through the fire that makes you hard and soft as hell. I'm so happy to hear you're writing your memoir. Sounds like you have a great Why.
Mesa, wow! Thank you for sharing your honest and profound Truth--and yet I know this is just the surface of it all. Wanted you to know I read your reply here, and it had an impact on me. Thank you for the courage of your vulnerability.
So glad you asked. I first read this book about ten years ago. It became one my very favorites. To prepare a response for you, I decided to go back to it so that I might refresh my memory. A refreshed reading was to rediscover a treasure.
The books author is Denise Inge. Its subtitle is important: "Facing Fear and Looking for Life." Ms Inge lives in an English parsonage with her husband, an Anglican minister, and their two daughters. The house provided to them by the church dates back to medieval times and includes a charnel house (bone repository) below the cellar floor. She has never been into it, yet it always fascinated her. One evening, with her husband and friends cheering her on, she ventures into this space.
That's where the story begins. From there she decides to visit four other charnel houses in diverse corners of Europe. Each of these turns out to be different and she takes the reader through the twists and turns of the lessons she learns about her fears of dying and how from that exploration she is learns to live more fully with acceptance of death.
She writes, "This [book] is about facing the fear of death. Looking the greatest fears full in the face can open up the cupboards of your life and throw the dust out. I discovered this on a tour of bones that started in my very own home. It is a strange tour, I admit, and one I never would have taken if it hadn't been for the fact of my slightly freaky cellar."
Thanks for the article Summer! I create art as a way of expressing myself and I think I will write down some things to go along with it after reading this.
“Daniel Pinchbeck and others say that consciousness transcends physical form.” Important quote! Because if it does, and I believe it does, shouldn’t we begin to prepare at some point in life? - not in a morbid sense, but with curiosity and joy. The afterlife is a daunting concept, but like anything else, it becomes less so the more we learn.
Totally! Makes the afterlife suddenly not so scary. More exciting really. How many times do we wish we could be invisible and fly and feel no pain like ghosts…
Right! Or like Peter Pan 🤣 I meditate every day, haven’t flown, but have experienced consciousness with thinking turned off. Like Cosmar describes, through emotion, just feeling overwhelming love. You can do this stuff when your kids have left for college 😞❤️
One thing I have to course-correct re Cosmar: it's Feelings that we have in the just-consciousness state, not "emotions." Just tryin' to stay true to my source here. On the same issue, it's rather ambiguous to me, so i need to dig deeper. Have a blessed day Summer!
Checking with Robert. In the meantime, what he wrote today follows and seems to answer our question feelings = soul :
Years ago as I began to write down my whispers I knew little about the importance of articulation.
Articulation is the quality of clarity either in speech or writing. It is the ability to accurately convey the meaning of our work.
It is crafting our feelings into words so they are best understood.
I have found over the years that when it came to messages from my guides or higher self how I was conveying them was as important as the words I chose.
Often I have been corrected in my choice of words or given a better word to use. At times my partner, CJ is used to help me write with greater clarity.
When I am finished with a whisper or these posts you are reading I can feel if they are accomplishing what my guidance intended.
It is like I am looking at them with deeper conscious eyes.
Some writers write to speak to our mind and others speak to the heart and feelings (soul) of their readers. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Just as poetry can speak to our emotions, whispers will speak to our feelings and their openness.
It is impossible to tell the state of mind of my readers, but if they are in touch with their feelings and heart they can feel the energy behind the words.
It will resonate with their heart and feelings and they will sense the truth in them.
This is how we work with the universe in spreading awareness or conscious understanding.
To articulate clearly is a gift and a joy to realize that we are working with higher conscious awareness to assist others in becoming more aware.
So they can find and discover their gifts and purpose on their journey of inner healing.
Protest marches artists music blast’s dancing in streets. Native American says “its a great day to die “. When God wants to take you , the spirit splits and a new song sung from a high rain cloud lightning flashes result. Music is another form of revolutionary tactics. Rise and be heard. Banks your way to the walls, make your voice clear. Summer, your voice speaks loud and clear.
I enjoyed this post and your reflections! It’s one of my favourite topics but not an easy one to work into real life conversation, unfortunately! I was 52 before I ever considered my mortality seriously, following 3 life events in 2021 that turned everything I thought I understood about the world upside down. The biggie being my 71 y/o mother having a stroke and no longer being able to live independently. I’d always assumed she’d drop dead in otherwise perfect health at a ripe old age, like my grandmother did. Naturally, I assumed the same for myself! So contemplation of my mortality also included the bonus terror-inducing contemplations of ageing, sickness, and the uncertainty of everything. It’s been a real descent into the underworld but I have come out of it knowing what’s truly important and with true gratitude for my life, right now and as it is.
That's a beautiful perspective, gratitude. Yeah, I can see how the contemplation of sickness & suffering & uncertainty can sound more terrifying than death itself.
OK. I’m at work now, so will send this evening. Drop me a line on gmail and I’ll send you something this evening, along with info on who played on it, etc. I think it would be funny (and cool, and not all that surprising) if we had some mutual friends!
I live in Bellingham, but work for a construction company that has an office in Juneau. I’m the project manager for a building under construction out by the airport. I’m also a folk musician, and was really lucky to be in town on business during the festival. Next year I’ll apply for a slot to play… it was amazing to see 1,000 people show up for what amounted to a giant open mic. Spoke volumes for what kind of community Juneau is!
At 72, death feels a bit closer each day. It only really comes into focus, however, with the passing of a close friend or loved one. I’ve been running across clips of a song that starts with the words “I’ve been thinking about dying.” Every time I try and look it up, though, I get a message about calling suicide prevention. So glad Big Brother is looking over ny shoulder trying to keep me safe…
Haha, that is morbidly hilarious. Kind of my favorite kind of humor :-)
Search "lyrics to More To This by Marc Scibilia"
I believe this is the song you may be referring to. And, thank you for helping me find a new to me artist.
"I've been thinking about dying
And how that's gonna be
When my skin and bones give up the ghost
And I finally feel my fragile soul
And all I am falls into mystery..."
That's probably it!
Dear Summer --
Nary a day goes by without me dying at least a dozen times. It's like I've been rehearsing since the day I was born.
And yes, that lights a perma-fire under me that never goes out. Which is a wonderful thing.
As is your wonderful piece! THANKS AS ALWAYS!!!
Big love,
Skipp
I hope your daily deaths are metaphorical. Or orgasms, lol. Isn't that what the ancient Greeks called them? But seriously, I hope you're not actually dying a dozen times daily...
If they really are orgasms, then for sure I really want to learn! C’mon Skip! Don’t leave us hangin’.
L. O. L.
Look, you started it! Skip’s gotta finish now (oops...double entendres really do sneak up on you!).
haha! sorry not sorry
HAW HAW HAW!!! If I were actually averaging a dozen orgasms a day, I'm guessing my outlook would be SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT!!! (smiles bravely, then breaks down sobbing)
Hey Skip, let me learn from you. Describe the “daily deaths” you speak of. I think I might know what you mean (if I’m on your same wavelength), but I always value learning from others their perspectives on dying and death--something our culture does NOT do well at all!
I agree!
Dear Kert and Summer --
Sorry for the delay on in-depth responsiveness! I mostly wrote a pithy note so I wouldn't hafta write a whole extra essay on the subject.
So here, for starters, are two pieces I actually DID already write, which might be helpful in framing this conversation:
HAPPINESS TIPS FOR THE PROFOUNDLY HAUNTED
https://johnskipp.substack.com/p/happiness-tips-for-the-profoundly
BLOOD IN THE AIR, OUR SOUL ON FIRE
https://johnskipp.substack.com/p/blood-in-the-air-our-soul-on-fire
Past that, though, lemme think on how best to nutshell the forms of daily death I enjoy on the daily...
1) THE DAMAGE CHART. As a guy who didn't expect to make it to 30 -- and who turns 67 next month (unless, of course, I die first!) -- I've got a litany of past behaviors that I'd have thought woulda taken me out by now. (Cigarettes, beer in quantity, refusal to wear sunscreen, unsafe sex, a trillion other reckless or risky behaviors.) And though I got off incredibly easy on the sexual front (see, TWO can play the double entendre game!), the other ones clearly left ticking time bombs that I'm aware could go off at any minute. So that comes up at least a couple of times a day.
2) LITTLE ACCIDENTS. A near-car crash here, a near-electrocution there, a near-losing-my-balance-and-falling-down-the-stairs on the side...every day, at LEAST one little stupid thing reminds me of how close I am to a totally stupid, ignominious death.
3) PISSING OFF THE WRONG PERSON. We live in a culture where death threats are as common as fruit flies these days. Insult the wrong orange person, or support the wrong cause, and you've invited to daily EXERNAL reminders that other people would be happy to take care of that whole dying thing for you. At the very least, this encourages daily doses of diplomatic tact. Which is not a bad thing!
4) HAVING SEEN TOO MUCH. As I mentioned a couple days ago in BLOOD IN THE AIR, I've witnessed a lot of violence. It sticks with you, every bit as much as those decades of smoking half-a-pack a day or more.
5) MY FRIENDS, DROPPING DEAD LEFT AND RIGHT. The older you get, the more accustomed you get to losing those you love. And one of these days, it will be me.
6) THE UNDERTOW. As discussed at length in HAPPINESS TIPS, there's a part of me that wants to die. That says, on the daily, "Just give it up, man. What's the fucking point? YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE DEAD BY NOW, AND GOOD RIDDANCE." That voice is an asshole, but I can't say it's not persistent. Nary a day goes by where I don't have to slap that fucker down at least once.
7) WHAT I LEAVE FOR THOSE I LOVE. Posterity is probably the one that haunts me most. Do I leave this place even slightly better than I found it? Are there things I need to do, to say, to share in any way, that need doing/saying/sharing? Will I fucking get around to it before it's too late?
So THERE'S A COUPLE! And honestly, that's MORE than a dozen a day! HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE!!!
Enormous love,
Skipp
HOT DAMN that piece was so good! I read the first one, HAPPINESS TIPS FOR THE PROFOUNDLY HAUNTED, and I had to sit down and marinate in every part. EVERYBODY should read it!
TALK ABOUT BEING MADE HAPPY!!! What a fantastic thing to wake up to! THANK YOU!!! (And I think it would be nice if everybody read it, too!)
Skipp, I’m so grateful you wrote and as expected, I have learned from you. I will read those posts you referenced and am looking forward to doing so. And I thank you as well for allowing my humor and even for playing along (I see your double entendre and will re-raise you one later. WAIT, did I just do that?). Maybe you’ve already done so (for a couple I know you have), but each of these points sound like their own essay—the emotion behind the words also makes me believe you are a poet.
Well, thank you again. I’m grateful you took my initial response seriously as that was how I intended it to be. May you be well today, my friend.
YAAAAAAY!!! And may you be well today, too!
An all time favorite set of lines for me from a classic;
"What are you going to do? Just throw your life away like it was nothing?"
"I'm not going there to die....i'm going to find out if I'm really alive."
Godspeed, Summer 🤙🏽
One of the coolest cartoons ever made, Cowboy Bebop. ☺️
*googles cowboy bebop* 🧐
Love that. What's that from?
I catch myself contemplating my own mortality from time to time. To me, however, this has the opposite outcome — instead of making me create at my best, it makes me depressed. This is why, for me, the saying 'live every day as if it were your last' never worked. If I knew today were my last day, I couldn’t care less about living it to the fullest. What for? I’ll be dead tomorrow anyway. All that said, I really enjoyed your piece.
Thanks, Silvio. And I'm sorry that's the outcome you're experiencing. I'm a big fan of writer (and wife of Jon Batiste) Suleika Jouad, who is young and on her third bout with leukemia. She says we should live each day like it's our first, seeking out moments of play and curiosity. And if the idea of mortality is depressing, I encourage looking into Day of the Dead and practicing that. I used to be scared of death, but getting funky with it, as Mexicans do with Dia de los Muertos, has taken the edge off 100%.
Thank you @Leomhann Saorsa for the headline! 🔥 💀
Summer, to echo others, thank you for writing on death. No secret our culture doesn’t do it well--the talking of it at least. And we have so few elders to teach us the skills of dying, death, and grief. Things that I’ve attempted to grapple with through my own writing as well. Anyone who can “go there” with such heart and depth is a kindred spirit. Thank you! Learning about your life experiences as well, as a cultural anthropologist, has also been fun.
Awesome. thanks so much. As a Spanish teacher, I always dive deep into Day of the Dead with my students every fall. I'm not kidding when I say it has completely changed how I view death and dying, just for the reasons you mention, how our culture approaches it in such a negative, binary way.
I contemplate death all the time, I sometimes feel like a magnet for it, having lost so many people I have loved. For a long time I was terrified to actually fully love because I thought that as soon as I did they'd be taken from me. I now know that I'm not cursed, and that love is my superpower because of all the death I've survived. I am far more present now that I have ever been and this is intentional.
I'm currently writing my memoir, I have been for years now, and your question of Why is one I think I'm still trying to answer. I keep coming back to I want people to know they're not alone and that connection is possible, that you can come back from things, even things you don't think you will survive. I'm a two time suicide attempt survivor - I should not have come back from attempt #2, but here I am. I got as close to death as you can and it did not take me. I didn't cheat death, I just wasn't ready to go yet.
Life is fickle and funny sometimes, but I live for serendipitous moments, that's where the good stuff lives.
Thank you for this today. I feel like it is exactly what I needed to read at this exact moment!
Oh wow, Mesa! Your depth really comes through in your writing talent. The people who have gone through the most are the most baddass, and you prove my point. It's that ability to have gone through the fire that makes you hard and soft as hell. I'm so happy to hear you're writing your memoir. Sounds like you have a great Why.
Thank you, Summer! I appreciate you very much 😍😍😍
Mesa, wow! Thank you for sharing your honest and profound Truth--and yet I know this is just the surface of it all. Wanted you to know I read your reply here, and it had an impact on me. Thank you for the courage of your vulnerability.
Hi Kert! Thank you for your kindness 🫶🏻
Highly recommend the book _A Tour of Bones_.
What's it about? can you say more?
Summer:
So glad you asked. I first read this book about ten years ago. It became one my very favorites. To prepare a response for you, I decided to go back to it so that I might refresh my memory. A refreshed reading was to rediscover a treasure.
The books author is Denise Inge. Its subtitle is important: "Facing Fear and Looking for Life." Ms Inge lives in an English parsonage with her husband, an Anglican minister, and their two daughters. The house provided to them by the church dates back to medieval times and includes a charnel house (bone repository) below the cellar floor. She has never been into it, yet it always fascinated her. One evening, with her husband and friends cheering her on, she ventures into this space.
That's where the story begins. From there she decides to visit four other charnel houses in diverse corners of Europe. Each of these turns out to be different and she takes the reader through the twists and turns of the lessons she learns about her fears of dying and how from that exploration she is learns to live more fully with acceptance of death.
She writes, "This [book] is about facing the fear of death. Looking the greatest fears full in the face can open up the cupboards of your life and throw the dust out. I discovered this on a tour of bones that started in my very own home. It is a strange tour, I admit, and one I never would have taken if it hadn't been for the fact of my slightly freaky cellar."
Wow! Fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for the article Summer! I create art as a way of expressing myself and I think I will write down some things to go along with it after reading this.
Awesome! Have fun, and art on!
“Daniel Pinchbeck and others say that consciousness transcends physical form.” Important quote! Because if it does, and I believe it does, shouldn’t we begin to prepare at some point in life? - not in a morbid sense, but with curiosity and joy. The afterlife is a daunting concept, but like anything else, it becomes less so the more we learn.
Totally! Makes the afterlife suddenly not so scary. More exciting really. How many times do we wish we could be invisible and fly and feel no pain like ghosts…
Right! Or like Peter Pan 🤣 I meditate every day, haven’t flown, but have experienced consciousness with thinking turned off. Like Cosmar describes, through emotion, just feeling overwhelming love. You can do this stuff when your kids have left for college 😞❤️
Hahaha! I love that idea, consciousness with the thinking turned off. Just love.
One thing I have to course-correct re Cosmar: it's Feelings that we have in the just-consciousness state, not "emotions." Just tryin' to stay true to my source here. On the same issue, it's rather ambiguous to me, so i need to dig deeper. Have a blessed day Summer!
Okay, now I want to know the difference between feelings and emotions...
Checking with Robert. In the meantime, what he wrote today follows and seems to answer our question feelings = soul :
Years ago as I began to write down my whispers I knew little about the importance of articulation.
Articulation is the quality of clarity either in speech or writing. It is the ability to accurately convey the meaning of our work.
It is crafting our feelings into words so they are best understood.
I have found over the years that when it came to messages from my guides or higher self how I was conveying them was as important as the words I chose.
Often I have been corrected in my choice of words or given a better word to use. At times my partner, CJ is used to help me write with greater clarity.
When I am finished with a whisper or these posts you are reading I can feel if they are accomplishing what my guidance intended.
It is like I am looking at them with deeper conscious eyes.
Some writers write to speak to our mind and others speak to the heart and feelings (soul) of their readers. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Just as poetry can speak to our emotions, whispers will speak to our feelings and their openness.
It is impossible to tell the state of mind of my readers, but if they are in touch with their feelings and heart they can feel the energy behind the words.
It will resonate with their heart and feelings and they will sense the truth in them.
This is how we work with the universe in spreading awareness or conscious understanding.
To articulate clearly is a gift and a joy to realize that we are working with higher conscious awareness to assist others in becoming more aware.
So they can find and discover their gifts and purpose on their journey of inner healing.
Protest marches artists music blast’s dancing in streets. Native American says “its a great day to die “. When God wants to take you , the spirit splits and a new song sung from a high rain cloud lightning flashes result. Music is another form of revolutionary tactics. Rise and be heard. Banks your way to the walls, make your voice clear. Summer, your voice speaks loud and clear.
Thank you Richard 🙏
So beautiful
Thank you, Liz!
I enjoyed this post and your reflections! It’s one of my favourite topics but not an easy one to work into real life conversation, unfortunately! I was 52 before I ever considered my mortality seriously, following 3 life events in 2021 that turned everything I thought I understood about the world upside down. The biggie being my 71 y/o mother having a stroke and no longer being able to live independently. I’d always assumed she’d drop dead in otherwise perfect health at a ripe old age, like my grandmother did. Naturally, I assumed the same for myself! So contemplation of my mortality also included the bonus terror-inducing contemplations of ageing, sickness, and the uncertainty of everything. It’s been a real descent into the underworld but I have come out of it knowing what’s truly important and with true gratitude for my life, right now and as it is.
That's a beautiful perspective, gratitude. Yeah, I can see how the contemplation of sickness & suffering & uncertainty can sound more terrifying than death itself.
joshuanearly@gmail.com
And yay for Juneau! Being as I'm a musician, would it be OK to send you a song? Who knows, maybe you know some of the people that played on it!
Sure!
OK. I’m at work now, so will send this evening. Drop me a line on gmail and I’ll send you something this evening, along with info on who played on it, etc. I think it would be funny (and cool, and not all that surprising) if we had some mutual friends!
What’s your email?
I live in Bellingham, but work for a construction company that has an office in Juneau. I’m the project manager for a building under construction out by the airport. I’m also a folk musician, and was really lucky to be in town on business during the festival. Next year I’ll apply for a slot to play… it was amazing to see 1,000 people show up for what amounted to a giant open mic. Spoke volumes for what kind of community Juneau is!