I Cried When Mac Miller Died
Is death a part of life?
Is death a part of life? Is death the understood ending of everything on this planet? Are we just following the natural order of things when we cease to exist on this earth in physical form? Or is death something different, something sinister, a black hole at the end of our journey that comes to swallow us whole?
I cannot answer these questions for you. Chances are, how you view life determines how you view death. One thing I can guarantee though, death is inevitable.While I might believe Get Out might be too close to the truth for comfort, I don’t believe that we can live forever yet. Therefore, a major theme of life is dealing with death.
Death might be understood at some points, like oh, Grandma passed away when she was eleventy billion years old. I use eleventy billion because I assumed all of you are trash (okay harsh… recyclable) like myself and don’t know your grandparents exact ages. Once you get past about fifty…. no one is checking to see how old you are, probably you most of all. For me, it becomes about simply appreciating you and your blessing of longevity.
While death of old age might be easier to cope with, what about those times where death seems to strike at random? When death cuts short the light of a flame that burned ever so brightly in its short time on Earth?
“N****s die everyday B”
An eloquent statement from “Paid In Full”, a movie widely regarded (well… widely in my circles) as one of the rawest, most authentic of our time. These days there is no waiting for weekly obituaries to find out who passed away, now all the information is directly at our fingertips, right in between a post of twerking and that of state sanctioned violence. No longer are we explicitly dealing with deaths of friends and family, the janitor who worked at the church your whole life, the town milkman who worked his route for 50 years, people who you might have met and actually shared a word with. Now we have to deal with the deaths of complete strangers or, like Mac Miller, people that you might not have known personally, but could have had a great impact on your life. How are we supposed to deal with celebrity deaths? In my opinion, however you see fit, as long as its not destructive to those around you.
I think its important to note that, most times when people mourn someone such as Mac Miller, they do so selfishly. Selfish has negative connotations but bear with me. When a celebrity who influenced your life dies, many times there are not personal interactions you can recall and cry over. Instead, you think of times in your life where that person played a part. Maybe you and your first girlfriend’s song was made by them or when you found out you passed a class, you walked outside and a Mac Miller song was playing.
Ultimately, we are mourning a part of ourselves that grew along with this person. We are mourning a connection with them that shaped who we are. Also, we are mourning the frailty of our own existence. We mourn the fact that life can be so fleeting, so whimsically decided by the hands of fate, regardless of the plans that we have for the future. The people we assume to be there forever are gone and they took a piece of us with them. We know forever doesn’t exist, but it feels that way nonetheless. We know those memories are ours to keep until its eventually our time to go, but the inability to make new ones, to continue to see growth, is worth our tears and grief.
This is how the death of someone you didn’t know personally can make you ugly cry, in a state of despair so profound that you don’t want to go to work that day or the days after.
When someone that affected us, suddenly ceases to exist, it’s a shock to our system. Many of us go day to day, taking our next breath for granted, complaining about inconsequential inconveniences simply because we are annoyed by them. Looking around, placing blame on others they don’t deserve. Looking around, placing blame on ourselves that we don’t deserve.
Will you use this premature death to snap to focus, stop making excuses, and work towards becoming the best version of yourself? Or will you just chalk it up to the cruelty of life and continue to stay where you’re at?
My only question is… if you choose the latter, then how much did that death really mean to you? One of your heroes no longer has a chance to inspire others as they did you, and you’ve decided that, in the end, their inspiration didn’t really mean that much. So if you’re going to mourn, make sure to pick up the mantle they are no longer here to carry.
If you do anything less than that, how can I see it as anything other than disrespect?