here do we go when it’s all said and done? That question will probably haunt me forever.
As I get older, mortality becomes harder to ignore. There’s this constant tension – feeling like you have all the time in the world, then realizing you don’t. You feel rushed, scared, and strangely comforted by the fact that everyone else is grappling with the same thing, even though it feels uniquely personal.
Most of the time I land on a kind of resigned acceptance. It’s going to happen, so I might as well keep going. But underneath that, it’s a mix of absolute terror and dark comedy.
If I let myself speculate, I like to think about energy – the idea that it can’t be created or destroyed. I imagine we become another form of energy, that our consciousness is raised into something larger, returning to a collective state. That’s difficult to reconcile, especially letting go of the idea of self, but I don’t think the self disappears entirely.
Alan Watts has been comforting for me. He talks about the idea that you are always you, and you will always be you. I like to believe consciousness can move in and out, travel, maybe even return to help others. That’s how I hope it works out.
But ultimately, I’ll have to wait and see.
This article is part of The Human Collective. Each week we take a prompt and create a playlist and accompanying articles. Check out the rest of the playlist: Songs To Keep You Wondering & Learn more about The Human Collective here.
About the Curators
Otis Galloway
My name is Otis Galloway, and I am a beautiful mess.
- I believe in music as a powerful agent of healing.
- I believe a cassette mixtape can carry powerful emotional gravity that tells stories that span generations, worlds and universes.
- I believe in travel, love, cooking, street food, cold beer and gelato.
- I believe in conversations that go until the sun comes up.
- I believe love comes in a multitude of forms.
- I believe in large kitchens and cooking huge dinners for friends.
- I believe we have so much to learn from one another.
- I believe in growing more hemp, cannabis and bamboo.
- I believe we should say, ‘I Love You’ more often.
- I believe we need more justice for the people.
- I believe we can do better, and should do better.
- I believe in a diverse, colourful world full of happy, realized, loving people.
- I believe gyoza is love.
- I believe in musicto.
Find me here: