The Loss of a Man
What value does a single human life have?
We can never know. But we can hold it with wonder.
That for certain we can do.
Chapter I: The Lake Floor
What happens when someone you love leaves this world? When a living piece of your reality stops being there?
The doors open, they pass through, and you don’t. Then the doors close and you can’t see them anymore, you can’t feel them or smell them or touch them. You can’t hear their voice or experience their laughter. You can’t stroke the back of their neck or nestle your palm against theirs or feel the warmth of their body touching your own. You no longer experience them twitching softly as they sink into sleep.
Their perspective on life, and particular opinions fade in your mind. They send you no more messages or photos. They will not help you with any more crossword puzzles or run your bath when you come home having worked too late.
When someone you love leaves this reality, you are struck squarely with the truth of the interconnected nature of your identity as a human being because there is a raw, gaping hole in who you understood yourself to be, in what you experienced your reality to be.
And it is painful to think, and painful to eat and painful to breathe.
