Life On Earth
Mum believed in God, but she did not believe in life after death. I don't know if her faith wavered at all during her illness, or if her ideas on heaven changed. She seemed pleased when people said prayers for her, even if not one of them was answered. (Perhaps similar effort being put into reforming the NHS might have been more beneficial.) As far as my own religious faith is concerned, her death put the final metaphorical nail in the coffin for me. Occasionally I wonder if her being taken from me was some kind of divine punishment for daring to get married in church when any Christian activity of mine lies dormant a million years ago in the past. But if there is a God, what kind of shit must He be to make someone as kind, caring, innocent, wholesomely good and wise as my mother suffer so much, whilst evil morons like George W Bush are allowed to cavort around the planet, blowing it to smithereens and murdering thousands of innocent civilians in the process?
And who has thought heaven through properly? How could it work? Do we suddenly arrive there and find everyone we've lost in our lives living there in perfect harmony? What happens when the time comes for remarried widows to pass through the Pearly Gates? Are they suddenly expected to be bigamists? I think it's utterly ridiculous when churchgoers say to me, "Don't worry - you are just separated from your mother for a short while." I firmly believe I will never see her again. And besides, I loved her like crazy, but she could be bloody annoying, and she'd drive me insane if I had to spend eternity with her. But the other day, a Christian friend of mine told me that in fact the Bible HAS thought it through - it says that in heaven there are no relationships, you are content to be with yourself and with God, that you spend your days in glorious worship of the Lord. Fair point, but not really my scene, to be honest.
This week I had the great privilege to work on the subtitles for a BBC documentary about the life of Sir David Attenborough, or "Dave" as he is known to his brother, "Dick". I was quickly astounded by what a truly fascinating, amazing man he was and how erudite and witty he is in interview, so self-deprecating and modest despite all of his phenomenal achievements. He discussed God as part of a response to criticism of the often violent side of animal behaviour he portrays in his documentaries. "Quite frequently people say how...I never give credit to the Almighty Power that created nature... It's funny that people, when they say that this is evidence of the Almighty, always quote beautiful things... orchids and hummingbirds and butterflies and roses. But I always have to think too of a little boy sitting on the banks of a river in West Africa who has a worm boring through his eyeball, turning him blind before he's five years old. I reply and say, 'Presumably the God you speak about created the worm as well.' I find that baffling, to credit a merciful God that action. Therefore it seems to me safer to show things that I know to be truthful and factual and allow people to make up their own mind about the moralities, or indeed the theology, of this thing."
David Attenborough has done more than any other television personality to show the astonishing array of wildlife we have on our planet, from the undivided-leaf Arums of Borneo, to the bowerbirds' sculpture-nests in northern Queensland, to the symbolic, gigantic tail of the blue whale, the largest mammal on earth. He doesn't believe in preaching in any shape or form, and not just in the religious sense, even though it must be clear to him that if life on Earth is all we have, we're doing a pretty good job of arsing it up, as we slowly but surely wreak total environmental havoc.
Peter Krause, who plays Nate in Six Feet Under, was also the subject of an interview I was subtitling recently. He said that, when thinking of life after death, he remembered the fundamental law of thermodynamics, i.e. that matter cannot be created or destroyed, it simply changes in form. Therefore when people die, their bodies turn to dust, and their energies must remain around us. When I saw Mum's body half an hour after she'd died, it was so obvious that she, the embodiment of her soul, her character, her spirit and personality, had left it. But I like to think that this spirit isn't shut up somewhere far away like heaven but remains with us. The love she felt for us can still spur us on through what we have left of our lives. As Mary Elizabeth Frye’s poem says:
“I am a thousands winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.”
REBECCA
And who has thought heaven through properly? How could it work? Do we suddenly arrive there and find everyone we've lost in our lives living there in perfect harmony? What happens when the time comes for remarried widows to pass through the Pearly Gates? Are they suddenly expected to be bigamists? I think it's utterly ridiculous when churchgoers say to me, "Don't worry - you are just separated from your mother for a short while." I firmly believe I will never see her again. And besides, I loved her like crazy, but she could be bloody annoying, and she'd drive me insane if I had to spend eternity with her. But the other day, a Christian friend of mine told me that in fact the Bible HAS thought it through - it says that in heaven there are no relationships, you are content to be with yourself and with God, that you spend your days in glorious worship of the Lord. Fair point, but not really my scene, to be honest.
This week I had the great privilege to work on the subtitles for a BBC documentary about the life of Sir David Attenborough, or "Dave" as he is known to his brother, "Dick". I was quickly astounded by what a truly fascinating, amazing man he was and how erudite and witty he is in interview, so self-deprecating and modest despite all of his phenomenal achievements. He discussed God as part of a response to criticism of the often violent side of animal behaviour he portrays in his documentaries. "Quite frequently people say how...I never give credit to the Almighty Power that created nature... It's funny that people, when they say that this is evidence of the Almighty, always quote beautiful things... orchids and hummingbirds and butterflies and roses. But I always have to think too of a little boy sitting on the banks of a river in West Africa who has a worm boring through his eyeball, turning him blind before he's five years old. I reply and say, 'Presumably the God you speak about created the worm as well.' I find that baffling, to credit a merciful God that action. Therefore it seems to me safer to show things that I know to be truthful and factual and allow people to make up their own mind about the moralities, or indeed the theology, of this thing."
David Attenborough has done more than any other television personality to show the astonishing array of wildlife we have on our planet, from the undivided-leaf Arums of Borneo, to the bowerbirds' sculpture-nests in northern Queensland, to the symbolic, gigantic tail of the blue whale, the largest mammal on earth. He doesn't believe in preaching in any shape or form, and not just in the religious sense, even though it must be clear to him that if life on Earth is all we have, we're doing a pretty good job of arsing it up, as we slowly but surely wreak total environmental havoc.
Peter Krause, who plays Nate in Six Feet Under, was also the subject of an interview I was subtitling recently. He said that, when thinking of life after death, he remembered the fundamental law of thermodynamics, i.e. that matter cannot be created or destroyed, it simply changes in form. Therefore when people die, their bodies turn to dust, and their energies must remain around us. When I saw Mum's body half an hour after she'd died, it was so obvious that she, the embodiment of her soul, her character, her spirit and personality, had left it. But I like to think that this spirit isn't shut up somewhere far away like heaven but remains with us. The love she felt for us can still spur us on through what we have left of our lives. As Mary Elizabeth Frye’s poem says:
“I am a thousands winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.”
REBECCA
posted by Rebecca Dodgson | 4:49 am
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