Dyinig Stars Leave Their Mark

After the deaths of celebrities Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson in June, I had a strong feeling that we were just getting started.

I said and posted somewhere that we would see more great ones die this year, including yet another American icon leaving us before the end of this month. Walter Cronkite died last night.

I see a legendary actress (and the most beautiful woman that ever lived, in my opinion) not making it to the end of the year, a BIG personality dying in a terrible accident (no drugs this time...) and one more from illness.

Morbid thinking? Maybe, but I've learned to not ignore these "feelings" because more often than not they turn out to be more than that. So I won't be surprised, though I will still grieve the death of people who in some magnificent way influenced my life.

I think of what's happening just like I think of the weather phenomenon "El Niño," which shows up every few years throwing the environment off a bit but having a domino effect that starts with the weather and ends with the inability of some animal species to survive.

In a similar way, I think at least half a dozen stars will fade this year. Some will explode; others will implode, leaving behind gaping black holes that will suck the life out of others nearby.

But if we live, we have to die--right? That's the one certainty in life--death.

I, for one, look at it as the natural progression of things--intellectually speaking, that is. Emotionally, aging and death kinda freak me out, to be honest.

I find aging depressing, especially if there are regrets (and there almost always are...), and death just plain confusing.

Religions provide us with theories about life after death. But despite the fervor with which these are believed, that's all they can be: theories, ideas, conjectures, presumptions, hypotheses--wishful thinking. Nobody really knows.

And in a way, therein lies the answer: if there was something there, wouldn't we have indisputable proof of it by now?

The possibility then arises that indeed there's absolutely nothing beyond death, and that unless we go through a process during which we're aware that we're dying, we don't even know we're dead because we cease to exist and, therefore, we cannot be aware of anything.

This line of thinking reminds me of what is like to be under anesthesia during surgery. We're injected with something and told to start counting back from 10 to one. By eight we're gone. And when we wake up and hour or 10 hours later, we feel as though we were just about to say "seven." There's no sense of time having passed and no inner awareness of it. That's because unconsciousness is unlike sleeping, during which we dream and sometimes toss and turn. When we're totally unconscious, we're mindfully dead.

And so I wonder: what if that's all there is when we die? What if it's about the organic death of the body and the cessation of consciousness, and end of story? Then we're truly dead, not just our bodies, but the "I" is dead. That would mean we and our awareness that "we came, we lived, we die" stop existing altogether. Nothingness.

Although that outcome would ensure the conclusion of any pain or suffering, we wouldn't be there to know we're no longer in pain or suffering.

How could that not be, you know, freaky?

And how can stars that shined so bright in the sky just drop out of sight? How can person who so many knew in life, who changed so many things for so many people just die?

I don't know. Assertions that such and such is now with the lord ... always with us ... watching us from above ... an angel in heaven ... and so forth give me no comfort because chances are they're untrue. Some believe it all; others don't even question it because they wouldn't want to risk losing the consolation these affirmations and explanations provide.

In any case, regardless of what we believe, at least in this plane of existence the person is gone, and for most of us that leads to grief.

I foresee more grief stemming from the death of BIG personalities coming up, and I'm not looking forward to it not only because of how these people will be missed, but also because with each death I'm reminded that sooner or later my time will be up.

Copyright © 2009
All Rights Reserved
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
First photo: Light Echo Nebula. Second photo: exploding supernova

Is There Anybody Watching?

Privacy is an endangered concept.

I've been expecting its impending extinction for years and wouldn't be surprised if I lived to see the day when privacy will be a thing of the past--outdated and obsolete.

Who needs a peeping hole when we have globally interconnected computers offering glass windows and open doors to countless stories, characters and places? Peeping Toms beware: your digital prints are collected and shared.

Computers keep track of every step you take in cyberspace-- every door you knock, everywhere you go, everything you say, everything you do; websites and advertisers stalk you and spam you; employers monitor you from afar; cameras on traffic lights watch you drive; cameras inside and outside stores watch you shop; cellphone towers can reveal your whereabouts; utilities, financial and government agencies keep records on you that just about anyone can access on the Internet; anyone with a cellphone can provide news coverage on CNN; your once private Social Security number is now required for basic services at home, to rent a property, see a doctor; satellite cameras can zoom down when you go out of the house to get your mail.

What's next?

The iGeneration

It's alarming to me to observe the younger generation give away it's right to privacy so willingly, without a second thought.

Ask any of them what privacy is, and you're likely to hear crickets. They don't know. They really don't know. How could they? They're growing up spellbound by a magic that allows them to be in contact with a universe of individuals anytime, anywhere, whether near or far. Cellphones and the Internet offers them a frontierless world with no audience limits, no beginning and no end. It's their Alpha and their Omega.

And it's not all about capability, but about desirability.

In this Technological Age, privacy seems to be systematically devalued while publicity appreciates in worth.

Notoriety is the currency of choice in the 21st century regardless social class, wealth, education, race, religion. Fame can buy anything...at least that's what we're told, that's what we see.

Success often is measured by who's busier with calls and text messages, who downloads more music, who owns the latest gadgets, who has more followers on Twitter, more friends on MySpace and Facebook... It's about hi-tech popularity.

The tech-savvy ones who know how to use and manipulate information with the gadgets and channels they have at their disposition have the popularity edge and, therefore, the power. Information has always been and will always be power. Informations is a means to exposure; exposure is a means to publicity and fame.

It used to be that you got on TV and magazines for being famous; now you're famous because you found a way to get on TV. And people, particularly the young, want to be famous--desperately.

They want to be seen and heard by as many people as possible. Why settle for relatives, neighbors, co-workers and friends when one can have an infinite audience? Nothing is worth doing unless someone is watching.

Free admission

The following story, published by ABC News about a week ago, is one of many that, in my opinion, illustrate how matters and events that were once unquestionably private are now anybody's business.

A young woman and man are chatting over the Internet using webcams to see each other. They argue. She decides to commit suicide. Does she end the chat, step away from the webcam, turn off the computer, go to another room? No. She proceeds to hang herself while the boyfriend watches.

No, this is not a Law & Order episode but exactly what happened when a 21-year-old woman in Arizona tried to kill herself while her boyfriend watched from Michigan.

The boyfriend acted quickly, calling the house and alerting the father that his daughter was dying. He raced downstairs to find her hanging by a scarf from the ceiling fan. He cut the scarf just in time to save her. By the time paramedics got there, she was breathing and semi-conscious.

Interestingly, although the chat was "private" (nothing is private on the Internet...), the cops took her laptop to check whether or not the suicide attempt had spread on the Internet, hoping to prevent copycats.

Who would've thought 10, 20 years ago that anyone would've felt compelled to copy an incident like this one...that suicide in what's supposed to be the privacy of someone's home would be a public event...that we would have access to images of people killing and dying--for real, not make-believe--anywhere in the world?

The world has never been this loud. I can't help but wonder: Will the offspring of the Hi-Tech iGeneration know how to keep a secret?

In man's quest for meaning, instead of asking "is there anybody out there?" or "is there anybody in here?"--will they be asking: "Is there anybody watching?"


Copyright © 2009
All Rights Reserved
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photo source unknown.