Write and Die

We must love one another and die. Auden

Wanted to use Write Or Die for this piece. Write Or Die is an app that starts erasing your words when you don't type fast enough.

But I would have had to download it. It is now 11:40, and I can simply say I'll finish by 11:55. If I don't, I'll erase this file.

A guy in the poetry community announced on Facebook last night that he was going to commit suicide.

First he posted the assertion that people who kill themselves are not cowards. I immediately replied: "I agree 100%. The ancient Romans admired suicide."

Then he posted in another message that he had pretty much decided to kill himself now. There were the to-be-expected expostulations. I returned to the other thread and typed, "But please don't YOU kill yourself! :(  

On the other thread, I typed, "Please, don't kill yourself!"

I had to go to bed, so I turned off my phone. Then because I was worried, I turned it back on, even though my wife was on her way, and added: "You were very kind to my friend Nora. You're a kind person. The world needs you."

This morning there wasn't much more, except that someone had "loved" my comment mentioning my friend Nora.

Then I got a strange message from another friend. It was a graphic rendition of an Osho quotation: "Life offers only two things: one is love, another is death - and both are dangerous, because in both you will have to die.

"In love you will have to dissolve yourself. In death also you will have to dissolve yourself.

"Love and death, those are natural phenomena."

Eventually my friend asked how I was, and I said, "Fine, I think. Lots going on, especially music." Then I said, "Thanks for asking, how about you?" and asked if he and George had met with Mike (as Mike had said that they would when he and I had breakfast more than a week ago).

Mike has prostate cancer that's advanced to his spine. We supposedly had a feud, but there's nothing to feud about.

Yes, they did meet. Didn't talk about poetry, but about the suchness of their daily lives.

OK, do I have time to draw a moral from all this?

To the Osho quotation my friend had added: "Eros and Thanatos is NOT always Romeo and Juliet." Hmm, I thought Osho was saying that Eros and Thanatos IS Romeo and Juliet. But I guess I'd agree that Juliet doesn't have to die.

The moral, as I see it - a sad one - is that I can't dissolve myself. There are some who need more love than I can give.

OK, it's 12:10. But I'm not going to erase these words.