{"id":2256,"date":"2023-07-01T13:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bodhisattvaroad\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2023-07-05T19:17:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T00:17:38","slug":"keep-me-in-your-heart-a-meditation-on-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bodhisattvaroad\/2023\/07\/keep-me-in-your-heart-a-meditation-on-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Me In Your Heart: A Meditation on Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
One day I was asked to give a talk about death at the Rime Buddhist<\/a> Center<\/a>. So I had to spend a few weeks thinking about death.<\/p>\n
If you want to hear the talk I gave, you can go listen to it here:<\/p>\n
How To Train While Dying<\/a><\/p>\n
I want to tell you a story about death because it\u2019s on my mind.<\/p>\n
There was this singer and musician named Warren Zevon. He was active from the 70s until 2003 and he achieved moderate fame. You may or may not know who he was and that\u2019s okay. You should look him up though. He didn\u2019t make Jay-Z money, but I\u2019m sure he was successful enough to have a comfortable life.<\/p>\n
Warren was someone who hated going to the doctor. If he saw medical care more regularly, they probably would have discovered sooner that he had mesothelioma. By the time he found out, the doctors told him that there wasn\u2019t much they could do. He was in his early 50s and he was going to die within 12-15 months.<\/p>\n
Warren decided to record one more album. He had enough time to do that. On that album he wrote a song for his wife called, \u201cKeep Me In Your Heart For a While\u201d. You should give it a listen some time. I think it\u2019s the most romantic thing I\u2019ve ever heard. And also it makes me think of my mom and dad, especially with this line, \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing simple things around the house, maybe you\u2019ll think of me and smile.\u201d It really makes me feel feelings.<\/p>\n
I left out that Warren had a famous super fan. Late night host David Letterman was a fan. He had Warren as a musical guest many many times throughout his career. And after Warren got his diagnosis, he went on Letterman. Dave had a whole episode where Warren Zevon was the only guest. Warren must have been a pretty open person because they talked at length about his terminal illness.<\/p>\n
Letterman asked him if his approach to life and music had changed since he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.<\/p>\n
He told Letterman:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put more value on every minute\u2026You know I always kinda thought I did that. I really always enjoyed myself. But it\u2019s more valuable now. You\u2019re reminded to enjoy every sandwich and every minute of playing with the guys and being with the kids, and everything.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We are often sleepwalking through life and not appreciating the little things. That\u2019s enjoying every sandwich. We are letting life pass us by because we\u2019re unmindful and distracted. We are letting things that don\u2019t really matter bother us and that\u2019s stealing what joy we have. We\u2019re all going to die. Everyone knows this.<\/p>\n
The poet Charles Bukowski said, \u201cWe\u2019re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn\u2019t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the situation we\u2019re in. We\u2019re going to die, but a lot of the time we aren\u2019t truly living our best lives. We aren\u2019t enjoying every sandwich. But we could.<\/p>\n