0:00:48.778,0:00:53.477
Do you know I was asked many many times when I was in the front lines of the

0:00:53.477,0:00:57.760
--no, when the people in the death trade thought I was a good idea--

0:00:58.960,0:01:04.144
to come and talk about finding meaning [br]at the end of life.

0:01:04.144,0:01:06.096
That was the standard request.

0:01:06.096,0:01:10.864
So you can see the idea that meaning is somehow

0:01:10.864,0:01:18.585
potentially elusive or even fugitive and has to somehow be wrung from the circumstances

0:01:18.585,0:01:20.402
is behind that question.

0:01:20.402,0:01:25.035
It's a particularly modernist dilemma to find meaning,

0:01:25.035,0:01:32.413
but the real problem is in the conceiving of it as something you have to find.

0:01:32.413,0:01:35.508
You can hear the language implies that it's hidden,

0:01:35.508,0:01:37.526
or that you're not looking in the right place,

0:01:37.526,0:01:41.514
or that there's some nefarious architecture that keeps it from you,

0:01:41.514,0:01:43.455
or that--you understand--

0:01:43.455,0:01:48.275
--or that you have to just claim so-and-so as your own personal saviour, you know...

0:01:49.491,0:01:53.739
But what if meaning's not hidden?

0:01:54.939,0:01:58.110
What if it's not something to find?

0:01:58.110,0:02:00.738
What if that's not the story?

0:02:00.738,0:02:07.920
What if the story is that meaning is not found at all--that it's made?

0:02:07.920,0:02:15.723
It's made by the willingness to proceed as if certain things must be:

0:02:15.723,0:02:20.941
like life has to continue, not "you" have to continue;

0:02:20.941,0:02:28.102
that life is not your lifespan or your children's lifespan or the lifespan of what you hold dear.

0:02:28.102,0:02:33.171
How about holding dear the fact that nothing you hold dear lasts?

0:02:33.171,0:02:36.252
How about holding that close to your bosom?

0:02:36.252,0:02:41.709
That's making meaning of the end of life, the willingness to do that.

0:02:42.079,0:02:47.976
It's not hammered into the sky for all to see so that nobody could forget.

0:02:47.976,0:02:50.426
You see how precarious the whole proposition is,

0:02:50.426,0:02:57.600
that it actually has to be lived out and told[br]in order to pertain.

0:02:58.139,0:03:01.938
It has no police, it has no enforcement branch, you know...

0:03:01.938,0:03:08.118
It just, if you're kind of not willing for it to be so, it probably won't be.

0:03:08.118,0:03:11.624
And what's the consequence of that?

0:03:11.624,0:03:19.445
Well, it's not a conjecture. Look around you. Our way of life is the consequence.

0:03:21.693,0:03:23.701
Life does not feed life.

0:03:23.701,0:03:28.498
Life is on the receiving end of life. Always.

0:03:28.498,0:03:31.943
No, it's death that feeds life.

0:03:31.943,0:03:37.956
It's the end of life that gives life a chance.

0:03:38.787,0:03:47.305
It's a hurtful kind of comfort, maybe, that the dominant culture of North America

0:03:47.305,0:03:53.738
is in some kind of beginning stage [br]of a terminal swoon.

0:03:54.600,0:03:58.809
Because it's beginning it's hard to tell the difference between that and dancing,

0:03:58.809,0:04:07.118
or having a good time, but it's terminal alright,

0:04:07.534,0:04:14.145
meaning there's no turning back from it. [br]There's no undoing it.

0:04:14.945,0:04:20.383
Alas, it's worse than talking about it as a punishment.

0:04:20.383,0:04:27.375
It's not a punishment. No more than dying is a punishment for having been born.

0:04:27.775,0:04:33.341
Our particluar dilemma, I think, [br]is trying to live the realization that

0:04:33.341,0:04:39.442
what the world requires of humans is not that they piss off already,

0:04:39.442,0:04:43.580
and "why don't you all die and [br]then we'll go back where we were."

0:04:43.580,0:04:46.471
No, I think the world whispers,

0:04:46.594,0:04:51.856
"All we need of you is that you be human. That's it."

0:04:51.856,0:04:55.926
The dilemma is in the meaning of the word 'human.'

0:04:59.158,0:05:05.319
What has to die is your refusal to die, your refusal for things to end.

0:05:05.858,0:05:09.653
If that dies, life can be fed by that.

0:05:09.653,0:05:14.808
And so the plea is not for punishment; it's for remembrance.

0:05:14.808,0:05:19.785
You're not supposed to feel bad about having forgotten; you're supposed to feel more.

0:05:19.785,0:05:23.503
You see, that's the invitation.