The Worship of Death

Peace y'all. I rose from rest this morning thinking about my Grand Ol Dad, my mother's father. He was a cool, funny dude who gave 30 plus years of service to the New York Fire Department. Shortly after he returned to the essence, there was a bill passed to commemorate him by naming a street after him and creating a full body sculpture of him for his exemplary service to the city. I couldn't help but wonder "why was he never acknowledged for his duty while he was still alive? It was then that I did the knowledge on the "worship of death" that is a pillar of destroy culture society. Some days on my ride to work I may listen to the radio and on the urban stations it's not uncommon to hear "Today is the anniversary of 2pac/Biggie/Ol Dirty Bastard's death."-and they'll play that person's music back to back for hours. Granted, I love the music, however this sh*t burns me up!!! Ol heads'll say "Gimme my flowers while I can still smell them." and I agree. At the same time, I guess it's the dualistic dynamic of life and death that we are never fully cognizant of how much of an impact a person has had on the world until they leave it. I'll take it a step further though, destroy culture teaches and keeps our people illiterate by suggesting a play with death is an act of life.I can recall planning to go to the movies or something, and saying how we was gon' smoke out or sip something before we roll out..As time goes on, you realize that you smoke and drink EVERYTIME you are about to experience something. Here's something else, say I'm at a party, maintaining, enjoying the atmosphere then I get approached by an old friend who offers to buy me a drink. I tell them I don't drink and they are floored cuz they remember all of my hoodlum/drunkard shenanigans of days past, then they say "C'moon Tiz...Live a little". Actually, I'm striving to live ALOT, which is why I quit drinking. Anyway, I'm sure you get the point-damn near anything associated with toying with death is led by the disclaimer "Live a little", from riding roller coasters to having unprotected sex to snorting lines of cocaine. The thing is, I toy with death everyday in my own ways, of course-that's just the nature of man being a scientist-yet I am not deluded into thinking that it is "living a little". It is what it is and I assess the risk vs the reward when determining my involvement. The worship of death is evident in how our society can perfect weapons, yet cannot divise a disease's cure, as well as the advertisement of the infamous crucifixion of Jesus. Another form of death worship that I see is the visiting of graves. Personally, I could never grasp the purpose of this. Whenever I look upon my deceased loved ones in their casket it is very obvious that they are no longer there. So to visit that former "residence" would suggest a personal psychological ailment on my part. And to bring it gifts and talk to it would suggest an even more serious psychological illness...that's just me though..