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Martinsville High School Alumni
| Class of 1963 |
Message List
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| Dust to Dust - 10 |
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11/06/17
Greg Norton
(1963)
sgnorton@hotmail.com
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DUST TO DUST
From dust to dust – that about says it all – it is where we begin and where we end.
Judi and I attended a celebration of life yesterday for a former member of our community. His name was Jack and he loved to fish and hunt. Jack was 85 years old and had a good life well lived. His best friend spoke of their many years together fishing and hunting in the eastern half of Washington state, and at the end of his stories he broke down in tears remembering his good friend. What more could any of us want for our own send off?! I was reminded of Rod Stuart’s poem in which he said (and I paraphrase) “each time we start a new relationship, it is the beginning of the end, for all relationships have an end, at some time. So do not worry about the end, enjoy the trip and the experience”.
I do not believe in heaven or hell; I am not a “religious” man in the sense that most folks think of religion. I do believe that trees and rivers and rocks and the earth have a life of their own; that they communicate with each other in languages and ways that few humans have ever begun to understand. We humans have long applauded ourselves as the “masters” of the earth and universe; but the longer I live, as a human, the more I believe humans are closer to the bottom life’s cycles. We live less than 100 years; I have stood next to trees that have lived over 1,000 years, and streams that have flowed for ten thousand years, and rocks that have existed for over 600 million years. And we know we are just a minute speck in the total of the universe. In fact, however, we are specks of dust that make up the entire matter and energy of the universe. We know the common denominator of matter is energy. In physics, energy is a property of objects which can be transferred to other objects or converted into different forms.
Perhaps the Hindu religion with its beliefs in reincarnation is closer to the truth than commonly accepted. Only the definition must be expanded or redefined in that following the dust to dust principle, after death, our cells, or matter, merge with and join and become other formats – water, earth, air, trees, grass, flowers; possibly anything and everything that currently exist in our universe. Perhaps becoming part of a tree that will grow and live for 1,000 years is truly a move up in the cycle of life. Just to be scattered about (as in our ashes being scattered) places our matter in a position to merge with many different formats and in that way, what was “us” has thousands, maybe millions, of opportunities to become part of thousands or millions of trees and rocks and flowers and waters which all are a move up in life’s cycles. This is hard to grasp as a concept, but it is one I feel and sense is there and waits for us all. In simple terms, from dust to dust.
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