The Dead
Did you know the dead live?
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I talked to a dead woman the other day. She laughed about the mistakes she made and mourned the love she lost; she didn't do this out of kindness. She just wanted to live beyond her years. The dead want the living to hold their hand and save them from drifting away for good. None of us are ever alone. We inevitably walk with an army of the dead. Some walk with us, but others our relationship is more incidental. The objects we use every day, the places we live, sometimes the very ground beneath our feet; it is all imbued with the souls of countless dead. They want us to notice them. To see how much they cared about what they did or why they did it. My eye drifts across the world and I have the pleasure keeping the company of the wonderful nameless dead. The beautiful construction of a bridge in the forest. The care they took in joining the wood, the way each end is anchored in stones that run deep into the earth. The care they took in planting the trees in their orchard so the sun hits all the trees on a hill. The scars in the earth from hundreds of thousands of pounds of rock being sheered off with explosives and hand tools. Take care to notice them. Some are proud of their mistakes and ashamed of their successes. The dead are just like the living. They are full of contradictions, fearing what's best for them and striving for their ruin.
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Only... the dead are much harder to communicate with. You have to really listen. If you assume anything they rarely can correct any misconceptions you have. Please let the dead into your life. They have such wonderful stories and such amazing skills. In letting them live on in us we lose so much less. So much is lost everyday that need not be. Remember someday you'll be dead too. Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world you could live on in.
