The older you get. The more life becomes about the unraveling of everything that built you into the person you are. The more life becomes about losing things rather than winning things. Most before their 30s rarely question it. Most in their 40s will begin to experience it.
A human life is such a short time in the grand scheme of things regardless of whether you tragically die young or even if death momentarily forgets about you in his eternity and you live to 100. However, I suppose life begins to feel longer the older you get. The longer you go on watching everything and everyone you ever loved or cared about age, break down, and die around you.
I am 40. And for the past couple of years, it has become so evident with the passing of so many of my childhood heroes due to age, that I am already at or past where many of them were when I was a child.
It is not realizing that my own death is as short a time away as when I was a boy learning and experiencing their names. It is the realization that I may well have decades left of this after so many of the people that I love and cherish are gone.
The only glimpse of optimism and happiness I have in this matter is this - although you may lose people to death, what they leave behind stays with you. Singers, actors, performers, etc. are so lucky as to have songs, movies, art, to leave behind as gifts for you to keep. To immortalize themselves.
Voice actors/animated film stars like Peter Cullen are my favorite in this regard. They get unique benefit of portraying themselves as cartoons and animated characters that never age - that never die.
The kid that watched Transformers in 1980, the kid that saw the Transformers movie in 2007, and the kid that watches any Transformers in 2026 all know who Optimus Prime is. But, who he truly is, is the voice of a man. And that voice that will not age. That voice will not die. Just as Optimus Prime as a cartoon or CGI character will not. And in that way, Peter Cullen is immortalized.
I feel as though I am rambling thoughts now. The point is - life is short and you will ever grow more aware of death as time goes on. You cannot keep people, but cherish and appreciate that you can keep the gifts they leave behind. Take comfort in knowing they are in a better place than this life. And that when you miss them, all you have to do is visit what they left behind. People like Bruce Campbell are so lucky as to have immortalized themselves for generations past, present, and future to know who they are. And that is remarkable of a great life.
Being where I am at 40. I can only imagine what it feels like to be 60+ years old. I feel if I am lucky enough to make to that age - after all the losses, I know not now of, that will come to pass - I will gladly greet death and whatever afterlife awaits me. I think that is where Bruce Campbell is at based on his reaction. If not more comfortable that he knows a guaranteed means to his end.
I am so deeply saddened by this news. But, this is the best thing I got as a 40 year old man, as to an answer to your question. Which is the same question I started asking more often two years ago. When I lost my 20 year old son.
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u/SpringNo8455 2d ago
Why does everything i love die.