Death and insanity

Death is insanity. My Mom died last week so I’m in her place cleaning. Unfortunately, she was a hoarder. Four people taking 3 hours and really getting nowhere. In life, we collect. In death, we discard. This is really important people, don't store your crud for heaven’s sake! It’s the ultimate paradox to me. We build a life. I guess that means getting things. Yet, in death, someone else is deciding what was valuable. Why collect, but why not.

            Rome wasn’t built in a day. In death, we deconstruct your Rome one piece at a time. I am glad we collect stuff. I like looking at the life I’ve built. Yet, I’m really wondering if it’s worth it. It seems so cold tearing my mom’s place apart. She loves her things. Here I am tossing it without a clue to its significance. We had a little doily. That is a fancy word for napkin. Why did she keep it? It’s nice but it’s an old cloth napkin. On and on I go judging what is worth or worthless.

            I’ll come back home this week and look at my own crud. Why am I keeping it? Is it valuable to me? I had a funny plan to place random things around my home. When my kids go through my belongings they would be confused to its purpose and value. But, would it hit the trash bin faster than I wanted it to? Now I’m wondering if the pain of deconstruction is worth a laugh I’ll never have.

            Gilligan Island was a funny TV show. In one episode, we have the skipper giving his things away because he thought he was going to die. So, he gives his little buddy Gilligan a few mementoes. Gilligan reaches in the trunk and pulls out a spider. He asks what that represents to the skipper. The skipper says I don’t know it must have just crawled in there. Gilligan freaks. That is it in a nut shell. We just know why we bought it, why it’s here, and what the meaning. Yet, the story goes to the grave with us.

            What goes God have to say about collecting? Ecclesiastics is a fantastic piece of writing. The think chapter 3 is one of the greatest works of literature of all times. At one point Solomon says there is a time to keep and a time to throw away. The sad part for me is time. When is the right time? My mom had a secret life of writing I never really knew her. Several times she said this is the time to lose weight. This is the time to unclutter her place. Yet she ran out of time.

            To be fair, did she run out of time? Our best intentions fight with time. I can see so clearly God telling us in the Bible that time must be used wisely. He said worry about today, not tomorrow. He said it was a sin to look back on our plow. He even said there is time for everything under the sun. We have some time to do some things. What will we do with that gift of time. Keith Urban sings about loving the moments in wasted time. It was never waisted. We judge it as waisted. Did we do great things or just sleep on time.

            To me, this is the point of drugs. It is a time killer. It wants you to ignore time. People always say relax man, there’s time. After what I just experienced this week, there is little time. Why do something that steals time. There is wasted time and being wasted in time. I have noticed people being angry with time. Were impatient with it, wasting of it, and ignoring it. Are we to adore or ignore time? Drugs don’t care. Drugs say there is time you haven’t got.

            I opened my mom’s urn box only to find that she had been reduced to a bag. No, urn, no fancy case, and no respect. I even believe her toe tag was on the bag just to make sure we knew who it was. We tossed the contents of that bag into the ocean. In the blink of time 70 years washed away with the tide. Time stopped for my mom, yet I had to get back to work. I had to pay bills, and plan trips. Time ignorantly moved on while she vanished into the sea.

            Here it is folks. Death is not to blame. It waits for its turn to have you. In the meantime, you have a chance. A chance to be a good steward of time. I said that some people are mean. I am going to try to be better with time. Maybe I can’t fix situations but I have the ability to not make them worse. I don’t have to be mean. Here is my kick at time in words similar to Solomon.

            There is time to play, and a time to text.

            There is a time to drive, and a time to travel

            There is time to hug, and time for silence

            We can waste time, but time will not waste itself on us

            Death is not mean, but you know what death means

            Keep time simple, and don’t live a complicated life.

            Gather little, but experience a lot

            Give a lot, but cherish what little you have

            In time, there is only enough room in the bag for you, don’t ever forget that

            So, don’t make time to gather hate, loneliness, envy, regrets, and wishes. Scatter love and purpose instead. The rest leads to death and insanity.

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