Death Takes a Holiday

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2005)

I know it's not a polite topic to discuss in public. However it's a topic that can't be overlooked and best discussed rather than spending so much in therapy. From the moment of life there's death. It awaits all things in life whether or not at the moment we believe it. So, how do we deal with it? Sometimes in self denial, sometimes in self abuse, sooner or later we all have to face it. This fallacy of positive thinking, always believing somehow we too can escape that grasp of death.
Now if you read this far, in that quest for knowledge. A seeking mind for the wisdom of truth. You will find in this journey it's all in our perspective, a matter of faith, belief in our own attitude. Ask any medical provider who strives to prevent it, ask any soldier who has to face it, clear down to the undertaker who must daily prepare it. Then talk to those that almost bought it! That Grim Reaper is there always when we least expect it. So, we tend to deal with it in movies, plays, poetry and song. An art form mirroring life as if it was just mere amusing entertainment.
We can put a spin on it in cd's like in the songs of Dido's "No Angel". Where we can feel the chords of melancholy of love long lost. We can find beauty in it in movies like "American Beauty", a journey of one man's mid life crisis and unfortunate life ending. Or, on the other hand, we can find that death can indeed take a holiday in a movie like "Meet Joe Black".
Most of these artistic expressions are epitomes of character assassination. However, in "Meet Joe Black" the twist is now, it becomes a matter of choice. Answering your own questions, dispelling your own doubts, overcoming fear and desire and our most basic emotions. Imagine a dialogue with Death, talking heart to heart with the Grim Reaper and at the same time teaching it all about life. This is a classic movie, excellent script of dialogue, love, compassion, innocence, honor and legacy with a splash of spin and clever twist. Centered around the simplest things in life, like peanut butter! The themes of inescapable reality, like death and taxes, feelings like hard to let go and cherishing those snapshots that in the end you take with you. It's great fodder to ponder, do we really converse with death in those final days and... would you?
So if you feel that you can cry every fifteen minutes in passion and compassion. If you feel you can watch a contemptuous dance with death for over three hours. If you feel it's a topic that merits just cause and deep contemplation to just bury the dead. Or if your just looking for good tear jerk emotions. Listen to "No Angel", take a deep look at "American Beauty". Turn up the volume of your DVD player to catch the whispers and ponder. Then "Meet Joe Black"!