Death Will Come Soon Enough

I have been a fan of the Wilson brothers ever since “Bottle Rockets”. I especially liked Owen, and I was saddened to hear that he tried to kill himself. I’m glad that he failed, and I wish him a full recovery. I expect that he will continue to be successful in the movie business.

I have been very depressed at times in my life, but I have never actually gotten to the point of trying to kill myself. Sure, it’s a comfort to know if things get really tough that sweet, sweet death is there to embrace you and make it all go away. I’ve just never gotten even close to the point where I even considered the option. I haven’t even thought out how I’d do the deed other than to imagine some comedic possibilities like setting it up so that I’d be framing someone I don’t like for my “murder” or some such thing.

When I was a lad in the Bible Belt, many of the most rousing hymns that we sang were about looking forward to that wonderful day when we’d die and get to leave this miserable world behind. Life was probably hard when a lot of those songs were written, and I could see how you’d get weary of life as a dirt farmer, especially if you expected to go to a paradise without pain or toil. It’s hard to be somber when you sing “I’ll Fly Away” even though the theme of the song is the happy anticipation of sweet, sweet death.

The generations that preceded mine were marked by large families, so we had a lot of kinfolks. That meant going to a lot of funerals and visiting funeral homes, and those songs embracing death were quite a comfort to them as mourned. They still are when I go home to the mountains when a kinsman dies. Up here in Yankee land, they sing different songs, but I don’t go to as many funerals.