Art, Death, Integrity

“Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.”

I recently came across this quote, by developmental psychologist Erik Erikson, in an article at Adbusters. It kind of sums up a few of the things that have been buzzing around my brain lately. It captures, for me at least, what the endgame of life should be… a steady progression of unfolding experience that ultimately leaves us in a state of fulfillment in which we can safely lay in our deathbeds and embrace what dreams may come.

That fulfillment is right now for people all over the world and it is right now for a unique and thought provoking writer who has played a role in shaping my experience of life… Robert Anton Wilson. While I am by no means a Wilson expert or even very well versed in his works, his energy runs through mine… and now he is dying.

He’s doing it with flare though… deciding to use his impending scarcity to raise some cash on ebay. His personal mystery auction could be a commentary on capitalism… or perhaps it’s a genuine last attempt to connect with his readers… or maybe it’s just a way to occupy a mind trapped inside a dying body. In any case he is meeting death with integrity.