Just like everyone else in the summer, I’ve done a bit of movie watching.
Because I never know what the movie is about or how good it is, I have favored the free stuff. Well, its not really free, is it? It comes with the subscription for whatever provider you have.
Never mind about that, the bottom line was I found myself watching “Temple Grandin”.
If you don’t know who she is, you should. Watch the movie for edification which is better in this case than entertainment.
Having known about her for sometime, I wasn’t surprised at the content of the movie, except for one part. The part where Temple faces death.
At least twice, while looking at the animal or human remains, she says the following,
“They aren’t here. Where did they go?”
That has stayed with me in ways that matter because for an autistic woman whose view of the world is very different than mine, she asks a very complex question in a very straightforward, simple, yet telling way.
My Jake would have been 38 years on August 11, 2016.
When he left this earth, I determined to know exactly where I thought he went and where he actually did go.
Eleven years down the road, the love we shared, the person he was still exists, just not here or in the body that he inhabited on this planet. In the mind and eloquent query of Temple Grandin, there is something beyond this existence that her special way of seeing the world was able to wrap around and question.
Now don’t think I am getting all morbid and weird. This is a fundamental inquiry to the human condition. It bears thinking about.
So what more do I want to say. Well, there is joy in knowing that love and life and spirit does not end. Heaven is for real, my friends.
And here’s my point. If you are reading this, you either suffered a loss or no someone who has, or both. This someone still hangs onto the soul of your heart and speaks to you in memories and hope.
I say give into the memories and the love. Today talk about the one who will have a place in your heart forever. Give the person you know that has the same hold on a loved one the chance to talk about them.
It does a body good.
PS My Jake loved to write. The problem was he pretty much sucked at it. He never lacked good content, it was in the execution that didn’t go quite right. But poetry. Now that was a different story. That the man could do. It was the place where his soul met the economy of words and rhythm. In March 9, 1998 he was musing on how sound had affected him and wrote a rather long couple of paragraphs, that well yeah… like I said.. but then, because he was feeling’ creative’, he penned the following:
It’s a fight ‘tween opposites
These two competing sounds
For the mind no respite
As these giants they pound
Like Goliath and David
One small one great
One pure one tainted
Becoming a viscous state
One says You’ll make it
One says You’ll loose
You don’t want to fake it
But its too hard to choose
You listen to the left
Your hear ol’ Doubt
But Faith is rather deft
And the Right comes out
Alas, Its clear to you now
The muck and mire all around
So You wipe your brow
And get up off the ground
Either evil or good wraiths
They haunt or guard your soul
Doubt versus Faith
Each with its own goal
One hisses of hates
The other speak of loves
Fighting for our fate
Each other one un-does
But the answer is plain
You must ignore your ears
And hear not in vain
For you, someone cheers
He cheers for you
To do what is right
Each day renewed
To fight the good fight
Happy birthday my Jake. I love you. See you on the other side.
One Response
Happy Birthday, Jake! You are loved and celebrated for your talent and devotion to our Lord Jesus.
To God be the Glory
R