The Art of Dying
December 18, 2019 9:10 PM   Subscribe

I got the preliminary word from my doctor by phone while driving alone upstate from the city to join my wife, Brooke, at our country place. After the call, I found myself overwhelmed by the beauty of the passing late-August land. At mile eighty-one of the New York State Thruway, the gray silhouettes of the Catskills come into view, perfectly framed and proportioned. How many times had I seen and loved the sight? How many more times would I? I thought of Thomas Cole’s paintings, from another angle, of those very old, worn mountains, brooding on something until the extinction of matter.
posted by latkes (18 comments total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thank you for posting that, latkes. I enjoyed it.
posted by tuesdayschild at 9:55 PM on December 18, 2019


I don't know that I'd ever read a piece in The New Yorker drunk before. Not bad!
posted by limeonaire at 9:56 PM on December 18, 2019


Enjoyed what I was able to drunkenly read...!

Everybody who has ever lived has died. Never Forget
posted by Windopaene at 10:10 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


> Everybody who has ever lived has died

You probably meant this to be comforting, but that kind of thought only fills me with horror on a cosmic scale.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 11:35 PM on December 18, 2019 [10 favorites]


The dead outnumber the living by 15 to 1
posted by catcafe at 11:43 PM on December 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


Swatted a fly the other day and thought, Outlived you.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:59 AM on December 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


"Death is a debt to Nature due Which we have paid and so must you.” ― Tombstone epitaph in Tatamagouche Nova Scotia
posted by thirdring at 4:41 AM on December 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


This is great. Thank you, latkes.
posted by rmmcclay at 5:02 AM on December 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


In my experience death is something that exclusively happens to other people.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:59 AM on December 19, 2019 [16 favorites]


Beautiful piece.
posted by sallybrown at 6:09 AM on December 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


Death takes all you’ve got and all you’d ever have.
posted by interogative mood at 6:19 AM on December 19, 2019


The dead outnumber the living by 15 to 1

Derail, but this immediately made me think of the buzzing, clamoring voices, all speaking at once, that a machine made to contact the dead reveals in William Sloane's The Edge of Running Water.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:29 AM on December 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


Death is a debt
I prefer to think of death as a gift we give to future generations. "Here is the space I take up, my place in the world. I hope they bring you good fortune."
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:47 AM on December 19, 2019 [17 favorites]


Fucking cigarettes. I quit for 18 months once, and went right back to them. Then it was even harder to quit again. I've got almost two years without one now, and I don't consider myself out of the woods yet. I'm humbled by that first relapse experience.
posted by thelonius at 7:55 AM on December 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


Yeah, tobacco is insidious. Booze was easier to give up.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:56 AM on December 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


This makes me very sad to hear-- I like his writing a lot-- but was a ... pleasure? to read? Not exactly the right word. There are some punch-in-the-face thoughtful moments there. I'm... gonna sit here and look at a wall for a bit and think. Thanks? for this link.
posted by Capybara at 5:30 PM on December 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


Fucking cigarettes.

It's been 20+ years for me & I still want one sometimes. So far I've been able to resist even having a vape hit.

Fucking cigarettes.
posted by sneebler at 12:47 PM on December 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


So far I've been able to resist even having a vape hit.

Good job! Don't. I tried e-cigs when I was trying to re-quit; l it just reminded me that I wanted the real thing. They have helped some people quit though.
posted by thelonius at 1:38 PM on December 20, 2019


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