From the beginning people died or disappeared. They were there one day. And then they were not. The world seemed to take it in stride. The streets were as they always were, filled with busy people on their way, the breeze smelled like diesel, the sidewalk like pigeons and beer. Trains roared and rattled away. My world paused. But around me everyone was still busy.
There was no way to grasp it.
I saw a play that showed a side of death I hadn’t seen before. People lived their lives, had families, friends and neighbors, made their mistakes, experienced kindness, gratitude and love. But the woman at the center of the story did not see her life for the marvel that it was until she died. Looking down from above on the people of her town who were still alive, she saw those people, people she always knew, living in that world that was hers, as she recalled the moments of her life, ordinary and extraordinary, as a treasure. Too late for her tell them how she felt about them. How much she loved them. But it was not too late for us, the people in the audience, saying to ourselves, I will appreciate the people I know, now. I will not let them slip under the radar of my attention, while I am busy, while I am driven by the pursuit of things, while I have the time to see what makes life good, and who the people around me really are.
Maybe that was the world Andy Griffith wanted to evoke in the first treatment he pitched for his show. His take on small-town life: the trials and rewards, the warmth and the charades. A complexity, its texture of tenderness, aspiration, temptation and jeopardy, underappreciated, mocked, in the cataclysm of modern urban life, as our standard of living soared, as division of labor tied our hands, as goods proliferated, as people separated, as the fabric of life frayed, as our quality of life declined.
Maybe the play that moved me gave shape to his vision. Until he submitted it. Until the metamorphosis of ideal under the influence of ambition began. That is, until the entertainment business fixed it, and to green light his project, required a few changes: diminished vision, trivialized characters, a restricted range of concerns; modesty, decency and dreams turned to laughs.
The effect of the play I saw – Our Town – ebbed once the lights went on in the theater, its enchantment broken, the sound of the traffic outside the theater filled our heads again. The competing concerns of real life jostled to the front without so much as an excuse me. But I did not forget that play’s perspective. I was not alone in that. It has been revived many times.
I had not seen anything like it before. It’s a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Carol had some of that. But only some. Some said it was too sentimental. Not like the bracing, revolutionary stuff that gave a hit of cultural vandalism before dinner with friends.
But what if you could live your life aware of the imminence of death. Some might despair. Some might decide to party till the end. But if we understand what it means it might open our eyes to the life we have right now. We might appreciate kindness and give it more freely. We could summon courage we otherwise would never have – to do what we can to take care of the people who need us, to restrain those who are being stupid, selfish and cruel. That would be a good way to live. Our attachment to the trivial pleasures of this world would diminish. We would be freed from the temptation to hold on to things that will vanish; giving up the trivial pursuits that leave us disappointed, weak, hungry, helpless, frightened, remorseful, hurt, tired and eventually dead. Being liberated from that would be good.
That is not just a hopeful aspiration evoked by art. It seems to be possible.
More on our approach to mind training tomorrow.
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Post Copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks
Photo by Rick Dikeman
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”
— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series