There was a time when on my walk home, I would pass a lovely tree with purple flowers, growing near a high school. This tree was about 10 feet tall, had circular green leaves, and small purple flowers, was stunning. The bark was innocent and young, brown, and free of gashes. It stretched lovingly towards the sun. It made all the other trees look boring. I looked upon it, when I walked past, as a singular tree.

One such day, as I walked past, I admired its purple flowers, its lovely leaves, its innocence – and the splintered-split destruction. The tree was broken. The young bark’s innocence was replaced by the cruel scar placed upon it. It was broken almost clean in two at it’s elegant, young, tree neck; and the little flowers were no longer proud, and the lovely leaves no longer longed for the sun, and the purple became a colour of mourning, rather than beauty. The tree, bent to the side, seemed as it wept.

I, moved by this, and slowly cursing the person that would break something this beautiful began to think. Who? Why? What? — Oh look. I was thinking about how someone might have jumped on it from the fence, and the nasty fall they would have had into a deep sea of prickly bushes, when I noticed that amongst the bushes grew something lovely, and small, and delicate, and singular.

The tree had a beautiful little child – a happy one – an innocent one. I came to understand, then, that humans are not evil, or unnatural. They are just part of the cycle has always gone on. Something dies, something it born.

Humans have a tendency, in the Western World, to believe that death is a time of crying, holding on to your loved ones in the rain, visiting graves to ‘respect’ the dead, and so on. I call this all selfish. Why is one upset that someone they love has died? Because they loved that person and they don’t want them to go away. There is too much uncertain with death. However, it is often said that the body is simply the shell for the soul, so one shouldn’t be attached to the body, but rather be attached to the soul. Also, if one is a Christian of any kind, then chances are, the person who leaves the world is bound for a better one. Why not be happy for them? Also, the little tree is not really upset that its parent is dead. This may be a bit too much of a spiritual leap for most, but I say that since the tree isn’t, neither should a person. Trees tend to cause less harm than humans anyway – I’m sure that there is a fair bit of wisdom that they gain from their natural simplicity.

Next, the cycle of life and death is essential for the further survival and growth of a living planet. Even if the person that dies is the worst possible person, and even if the tree that perishes is the loveliest tree in all the lands, remember that somewhere down the line, the nutrients (and I would say energy) of that being will be used, and perhaps they would be used for a most wonderful reason – such as the creation of a person that loves the planet and would aid it, or one who eventually figures out the secret to peace (although, strictly speaking, war isn’t such a bad thing if you think that death is good – but the suffering bit isn’t so great for anyone, I don’t think).

Furthermore, there is a massive problem with the amount of humans that there are on the planet. We exceed the world’s carrying capacity for our species, and will run out of resources soon if nothing is done. Currently, there is a forecast for a need of three or four more planets in order to sustain our current population, and that population doubles in shorter and shorter terms. Therefore, it may be viewed as a good thing that humans die, in order to prevent the species going extinct.

Also, in the Eastern World, death tends to be celebrated, and there are gods dedicated to it, which are worshipped. Therefore, it leads one to think, that since death may be a good thing, and since the person is going to a better place, and since their energy may be used for something great, and since the person’s accomplishments will likely impact the future on some level, and since the East doesn’t generally suffer over death – then why should anyone suffer? Besides, would your loved ones really want you to cry on their behalf? I don’t think they’d want that.

Stub/Summary: “The tree with purple leaves is killed - the young tree grows of the same kind; there is good in death, and the circle of life is key.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Death & Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.