Death Rides My Left Shoulder
While Alessandra and I were watching Alias Season 2, not more than 30 feet away, my neighbor Mike died from complications from having his stomach removed... surrounded by his loving family. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to death, and I was watching tv.
Death surrounds us daily and we rarely think about our own personal death. We create elaborate, fantastic cosmologies to explain what happens when our bodies stop functioning, but don't often think about it. I used to think about death a lot more, and except for those nights I wake up screaming at night because I am afraid of my impending death, I rarely do now.
“Put Death on your left shoulder” says Don Juan, the Shaman of Carlos Casteneda’s books. I don’t remember much about those books that I read nearly 20 or a million years ago, but that one piece of data really sticks out.
As I am again consciously walking some sort of personal evolutionary path, it’s time to remind myself and everyone that reads this, that we need to wear Death on our shoulders to remind us that one day we will die. We need awareness of the quality of our living. What have you done to make yourself or the world a better place today? Are you living the life you want? Are you the person you want to be? Why the fuck not?
I need to be reminded daily. I’m going to add it to my daily affirmation. Death brings me the perspective I need to judge the importance of the events in my life. How does this event relate to the death of myself or a loved one. Is it really all that big a deal? I hope to keep this awareness with me as long as I can, but I know that over time, I will again begin sleepwalking through life.
I am reminded of the other thing I learned from Castaneda: that when one makes the Journey to Ixlan (the magical city), one must make the journey alone, and if that traveler returns, they still reside in Ixlan. You can’t come back. A metaphor for the lonley journey of the Shaman Apprentice.
Castaneda did not forsee the Internet, and I realize that none of us here are making the journey alone. Just as we have hitched our wagons together can we hopefully remind one another that Death rides our left shoulders(or in Fenderson’s case, on his head.) We can remind each other that we need not go back to sleep.
Death surrounds us daily and we rarely think about our own personal death. We create elaborate, fantastic cosmologies to explain what happens when our bodies stop functioning, but don't often think about it. I used to think about death a lot more, and except for those nights I wake up screaming at night because I am afraid of my impending death, I rarely do now.
“Put Death on your left shoulder” says Don Juan, the Shaman of Carlos Casteneda’s books. I don’t remember much about those books that I read nearly 20 or a million years ago, but that one piece of data really sticks out.
As I am again consciously walking some sort of personal evolutionary path, it’s time to remind myself and everyone that reads this, that we need to wear Death on our shoulders to remind us that one day we will die. We need awareness of the quality of our living. What have you done to make yourself or the world a better place today? Are you living the life you want? Are you the person you want to be? Why the fuck not?
I need to be reminded daily. I’m going to add it to my daily affirmation. Death brings me the perspective I need to judge the importance of the events in my life. How does this event relate to the death of myself or a loved one. Is it really all that big a deal? I hope to keep this awareness with me as long as I can, but I know that over time, I will again begin sleepwalking through life.
I am reminded of the other thing I learned from Castaneda: that when one makes the Journey to Ixlan (the magical city), one must make the journey alone, and if that traveler returns, they still reside in Ixlan. You can’t come back. A metaphor for the lonley journey of the Shaman Apprentice.
Castaneda did not forsee the Internet, and I realize that none of us here are making the journey alone. Just as we have hitched our wagons together can we hopefully remind one another that Death rides our left shoulders(or in Fenderson’s case, on his head.) We can remind each other that we need not go back to sleep.
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