the law of diminishing personalities

“Every man's memory is his private literature.” -Aldous Huxley

the people around you are going to die

before you do---

the people you love,

the people you hate &

even the people that you haven’t quite come to any conclusion about---

they will all

perish

before you,

because if you go,

they go

automatically---

and this isn’t new,

or exciting, or

especially

thrilling to hear---

but it is something that we all know

deep down in our own hearts & minds

when we feel most vulnerable &

most alone in this accidental world in which

each

one of

us

is an accident as well,

but it certainly should shed some light on the value of our present

existence---

it certainly should make us look around &

see the faces of the people who know us best

in

this

very

moment---

the smiles & the frowns, the laughs & the tears which all come with

our very human lives,

illustrating the very essence of what it is to be alive

amongst so much

death---

and though all who we love & with whom we share our warmest

occasions will

disappear,

their personalities will halt only in the fact that they

no longer produce new

material---

we are so fortunate to have shared a deep conversation,

or an exchange of intimate thoughts with

anyone in this

short

short

life,

so that when our family & friends have gone,

we still walk in the library of their memory---

we still pull from the shelves

volumes

of words & actions

which defined for us both sweet &

bittersweet

connections

that now still illuminate our own

heartbeats,

our own thought processes &

our every

step,

if we are so wise to not dwell in the inevitable

sadness that these individuals are physically

gone & to instead

take them with us in our own journey while we

still are

breathing

life.