“No one’s going to last forever, and nothing is going to last forever.”
Nihilism, existentialism: what is anything, anyway? Recently, Charli XCX’s new album Music, Fashion, Film has me thinking about life all over again. What themes are important? What is artistry if led by ego and societal pressure? Is art made for art’s sake? Is there freedom in oblivion? Charli’s final song on the album “No One Lasts Forever” has a hauntingly beautiful outro by David Cronenberg. In it, he ponders artists and their purpose for creating:
“I mean, we could talk about immortal artists of various kinds and
it, it can turn out that, yes, some artists
have created art that has really survived thousands of years and that’s fantastic
but experientially, for them, they are dead, they are gone, they are not experiencing that.
These are true things.”
Is it not true that so many artists, poets, writers, creators, etc. strive for recognition in their lifetime, for their ego to be satisfied and seen, truly to rarely see the fruits of their labor? Think of Vincent Van Gogh, a tortured soul who struggled for recognition, but was beautifully supported by his brother and sister-in-law. The same sister-in-law, Johanna “Jo” van Gogh-Bonger, who was the catalyst for making him a household name posthumously. She saw the beauty in Vincent, knew his capabilities, and chose to live out her days honoring her brother-in-law because of the beautiful relationship he had with her husband, Vincent’s brother. Or, what about Emily Dickinson? A woman who lived a private life, publishing a few poems herself, only to achieve recognition after she died, because her sister, Lavinia, found her poems locked in her desk. She clearly did not write for fame, but rather herself. To let her thoughts out, to bring peace to her soul, to express how she felt in her everyday.
I think truly, the best things, the richest things, come from people who do things because they care, because it comes from their soul, not from trying to reach long-lasting fame. I believe there is a peace in David’s words “that oblivion is freedom; they are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever.” It removes this burden of ego and pressure from the soul that allows a person to live authentically as themselves. That phrase has been on my mind for days:
“they are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever”
In my own practice recently, I’ve surrendered to life and her ups and downs. I accept the things I cannot control, and choose to lead with light and love in the things I can. My ceramics business is up and running, my LLC acquired, and I am making art for the sake of it. I’ve still struggled with understanding that you have to navigate life, that many things, especially money or material things, only have power over us because society has placed value upon them. But what is value, if not contingent? It reminds me of an episode of Twilight Zone titled “The Rip Van Winkle Caper.” Set in 1961, its premise is that four thieves rob a train for $1 million in gold bars. They hatch a plan to hide in a desert cave and rest for 100 years in a suspended animation chamber to get away with their crime, because after 100 years, who will remember them or what they did? Oblivion is freedom, right? In the end, one died from a cave-in, and the other three turned on each other out of greed. The last survivor, dying of thirst from the scorching heat of the desert sun, uses his last moments to hold out a gold bar to buy water from a passing car, only to die before they could help him. Already, the theme is sad in itself: greed serves no one in the end. Except, there’s a twist. In 2061, gold is manufactured chemically, and therefore, is completely worthless. The value that was once assigned to gold, which led men to steal and kill over, eventually held no value in the end.
Who are we as people, but a community of beings and souls figuring out the world? What things do we assign value to that end up not serving us in the end? A question I like to put out there, to see if my beliefs are my own or a product of my environment is:
If everything you ever believed in turned out to be false, would you still live your life according to those values?
I thought of this a couple years ago, mainly to see if it could help understand extremism and if things are done because a reward is sought after, or because it is truly a belief that is held dear to a soul. I believe this lends itself to the idea that ego can either lead a person in love, or have them drift away. Is an artist making a piece because they want to critique society, or because they think it will bring them riches? Does an artist create a song because they want to express themselves and share a piece of themselves with the world, or because it will help secure a record deal? Two things can be true at once: an artist wants to share art for art’s sake, but also wouldn’t mind if it made some money. But what is the driver? That’s up to the individual. But here’s the catch: no one lasts forever.
There is such a freedom and release from that saying. It’s freeing because it allows an individual to understand that they can lead their life how they choose. They can truly find themselves, because in the end, what’s the only thing that matters if not the energy we leave behind and the love we share for each other? Is not the ultimate value in this world found in relationships? How we care for another? Oblivion is freedom BECAUSE it releases the pressure of trying to curate this perfect identity, or being. Artists, and people, rarely live to see their own immortality. Are we judged by our materialistic feats, or the essence we leave behind? Does any of it really matter? No. Meaning doesn’t have to be eternal to be real. Because oblivion is freedom. And freedom is in the love we leave behind.