Life, Death, and Loss

 

‘Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

 Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge

When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again’

 From the 1968 single ‘Meet on the Ledge’ by Fairport Convention

 

In my head for the last week or two have been several possible posts about weighty matters of faith, doubt, church, mission, the world and much more.

But really over these last few days my mind and heart have been taken up with issues of life, death, and loss. In part this has reflected some of what I have been watching on TV / Netflix / DVD (yes, I still have DVDs!).

I watched the new version of  ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. What a great film, but unrelentingly bleak. The futility of war and the waste of life.

We also watched the two part TV programme ‘Mayflies’ (with Martin Compston, amongst others). Well worth a watch, although it will raise all sorts of questions, while also dealing with issues of friendship, death, and loss.

I recently purchased the bluray/DVD documentary featuring my favourite rock band, King Crimson, ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’. One of the most striking things about this documentary is the interviews with two members of the band who have died since the documentary was recorded. In the case of one of them, it was not known to the documentary maker that this member was dying (but once you know, it is pretty clear). However, in the case of the other, who had stage 4 cancer, but kept on playing with the band to the very end, it is openly discussed and it is a recurring theme throughout the documentary.

Now, all that in itself would give me cause for reflection and much thought.

But, much more significantly, in these last few days, we have also lost two friends to cancer. Not surprisingly, alongside the sense of loss, there has been a bit more pondering of matters related to life, death, and loss.

In the face of an untimely death, we naturally feel particularly ‘robbed’. But, it has been occurring to me that the significance, worth, and influence of a life are not to be measured simply in terms of the number of years that life lasts. And when I think of my recently departed friends, I know I have so much to treasure and what a lot they gave and how much I have to cherish. And if that is true for me, how very much more for their loved ones.

And both of my friends were people of faith who knew and trusted that death was not the last word.

All of that said, the reality and pain of loss remains very sore. I feel it just now.

Goodbye, my friends. See you on the other side.