Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, August 20, 2009

The poet does not fear death, not because
he believes in the fantasy of heroes, but
because death constantly visits his thoughts
and is thus an image of a serene dialogue.

- Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian poet, critic,
and translator, Nobel Prize, born on
this date, 1901


“A serene dialogue”. Now, that’s a lovely phrase. There is little serene about Life these days , externally. Maybe that has always been true? Serenity is, I suspect, essentially an “interior” product. Some will come to it philosophically, some through religion or faith, some through other mysterious inner workings. But I do think it is an important “place” to get.

Especially with relationship to death. Death and Life, I experience, and countless people have reflected on it, are clearly inextricably related. Perhaps, in some way, the same thing seen from a different perspective. We all are affected in how we live by what we think about Death. On the whole, I think that the less one engages with Death, the less we Live. Christianity sees it most simply in the juxtaposition of Crucifixion and Resurrection. And in such phrases as, “As you die, so shall you live.” Baptism “into Christ” is, among other things, the entrance into this Mystery.

A serene dialogue with Death is, I think, one of the clearest roads to Freedom. A serene dialogue with Death banishes fears and opens rooms of Light, often into many dimensions of Life. It makes Life glitter!

Today may your inner poet lead you on this marvelous road!

Brian+