No one will ever know our names

I was listening to an appropriately dorky German heavy metal band this afternoon. One of their songs is titled "The Bard Song." It's not the best song, and like most songs written in english by germans, the words look a little strange, but it's gotten me thinking. The song is about the shortness of life, and the chorus goes like this:

Tomorrow will take us away

Far from our homes

No one will ever know our names

But the bards' songs will remain

It's romantic and a little depressing. No one will remember us, but the things we've done, our memories left behind, and our songs will outlive us. They'll carry on when we're spent, singing again about whatever it is we sang about. No one will remember us at all - not even our names.

And certainly even our songs won't live long. Even the greatest of myths survive for mere hundreds of years before becoming so occluded that the original characters are long lost in fantastic fabrication. In terms of human history this isn't long at all, not to mention the time frame of our universe. We're fleeting - destined to disappear as completely and quickly as the morning dew, water in the dessert, or the iPod mini.

The Bushido code of the samurai advises young warriors first and foremost to always be mindful of death, and make an understanding of death a part of every daily action. Classical philosophers and scholars, not excluding Shakespeare, used to keep human skulls on their desks to force visual reminders of their impending end. They did this because a healthy reminder of death gives perspective to every situation and makes many of our frustrations and discomforts seem properly trivial. They also did this as a reminder to take care to write the story of your life well while it lasts, as few ever see the ending before it's time.

Death is certainly the strangest occurrence we deal with in life, and in my opinion it does more to shape our conception of the world than anything else. It's interesting to watch how others deal with death. Do they distance themselves from it, or embrace it, feeling that by taking it in as fully as possible they might get past the elusive strangeness of nothingness and back to a place of basic comfort? Which aspects of the life of their lost friend do they focus on? Do they deal with loss by inventing a hero out of an ordinary, or even less-than ordinary, person? Or do they simply sit stunned and speechless, confused beyond the ability to recognize confusion, stunned by the mystery that revolves around how a person can be and then be not?

However we deal with it, it's worth remembering that we've all "been" a very short time, and we'll "not be" sooner than we can ever comprehend.

Tomorrow will take it away

The fear of today

It will be gone

Due to our magic songs

There's only one song

Left in my mind

Tales of a brave man

Who lived far from here

Now the bard songs are over

And it's time to leave

No one should ask you for the name

Of the one

Who tells the story

Tomorrow will take us away

Far from home

No one will ever know our names

But the bards' songs will remain

Tomorrow all will be known

And you're not alone

So don't be afraid

In the dark and cold

'Cause the bards' songs will remain

They all will remain