The Summation of Life

The Summation of Life

I often wonder sometimes that why in life it takes polarizing moments in history for us as human beings to mull over life and our own life’s purpose. With yesterday’s passing of Michael Jackson, I found it pretty amazing the scope of emotions that news provoked. Emotions ranged from confusion, anger, sadness, to sadly, (to say the least), the hopefulness that he would rot in damnation for eternity. I also found it funny that even for those who remained neutral and stated they didn’t care, actually must have cared one way or the other because they still felt the need to comment on how much they really didn’t care. Either way, it never fails that what evokes the whole “What does it all mean?” in us all is some type of “cataclysmic” world event albeit good or bad. This brings me to my first thought; what is an individual’s summation of life?

When I was in high school, I can remember that there was one poem that I studied that not only affected my thinking on life and death, but also intrigued my already burning desire for the literary arts and how words, if used properly, can be in and of themselves spoken/written works of art. That poem was “I heard a fly buzz when I died” by Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson, the recluse that she was, summed up in a very elegant and simple way the finality of death. What I took from the poem was that despite our greatest achievements, failures, loves, etc., what really sums up our lives as a dying person is our last living memory before we cross over to our Creator. For Ms. Dickinson, it was a fly buzzing. How poignant and thought provoking. I don’t think anyone before her or after her has taken that view of death. Think about it, death is inevitable and the only thing in life that you can’t experience twice. Consequently despite the memories our living brethrens may have of us after we all cross over, the only memory that really matters is our final one. Now this brings me to my second thought; which summation of our life matters most?

I guess my whole inquiry was sparked after reading some of the postings I saw on facebook/twitter as well as some of the comments I heard via the media outlets. I was just amazed at how with this particular passing of an individual; there were two extreme sides when it comes to the memory of Michael Jackson. There was never a middle ground. It seems that for most of us we choose to remember Michael for the force he was as an artist and amazing talent. While others, choose to remember him for his eccentricities and the stigma that came along with his legal woes. I was just wondering should an individual’s summation of life be judged according to the few hiccups he/she may experience or should it be the scope of a person’s life. I personally believe that it should be the scope. I say this because as a Christian, I believe that everything happens according to God’s will and it was God’s will that Michael received a not guilty verdict in his trial. So I choose to not sum his life up according to what I don’t have proof of, but rather what I do have proof of- and that is his talent. Only God knows the truth behind the “madness” that was Michael’s life and it is not up to us to make judgments on the finality of his life according to our own opinions. In the end, despite everything you may experience in life, the summation of life comes down to a buzzing fly. So instead of living a life of moral judgment and condemnation of others, how about choose to live a purpose driven life of love, tolerance and acceptance. After all even though you will never be able to voice it, the only summation of our lives is our own final memory once we cross over to the Creator.

Stay Blessed and Covered!

-Melody L. Fletcher

I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable, and then
There interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
-Emily Dickinson