Good Grief

Recently saw Patton Oswalt's latest standup, content of which had to do with his wife's life and death and his (and his daughter's) coping.

I will say that I never cared much for Oswalt as a comic until this performance. The raw emotions, honesty and pain were just all so relatable.

Great comics have a gift of storytelling that reels the audience in, captivates them, and impresses them in such a way that leaves them never the same again.

The 60 or 90 minutes or whatever it was just flew by. In the end, as any full circle goes, Oswalt parts way with this from Michelle, his late wife:

It's chaos. Be kind.

So concise and powerful, these words resonate. Earlier in the show Oswalt challenges the notion of "Everything happens for a reason". Indeed it doesn't. Life makes no sense.

In college (the second time) my favorite class was in Religious Studies. It was called "Death, Dying" and something. Perhaps the fact that I don't recall the "something" speaks volume. It was the most fascinating class. I've regurgitated this one phrase, "If you don't know how to die, you don't know how to live." I was on this quest of how to live.

I've been called morbid at various points. Fact is there is no point in pretending we'll live on forever. It is silly that death is a taboo topic. OK maybe I am a little obsessed with death. I enjoy wandering through cemeteries, studying graves, imagining the stories behind those extinguished lives. I thought that being close to death would prepare me for it, my own and that of my loved ones.

I've come to realize, though, nothing prepares you for death. And I haven't learned how to live, either.

I have given up on making sense of life. In accepting the senselessness, there is hope for peace.

It's chaos. Be kind.