Oblivious – Overlooking The Obvious.

Friday, May 2, 2025

In Top Five Regrets of the Dying, the author tells of her experiences in palliative care. Some families don’t tell their loved ones of their terminal status. One family simply lied and said to their family member, “You’ll be better in no time!” This, of course, was not only futile, but cruel. What’s even crueler is that we are oblivious to our own ephemerality. The roots of oblivious means “forget.”

At some level, oblivion is forgetfulness. We prefer to turn away from truth – purposefully forget about our own funerals. Our partners die. Our children die. Our pets die. Our careers die. Our hopes and dreams die. Our skills die. I’ve known many musicians who keep their careers on respirators. Holding dead things – how sad! Michelangelo’s Pieta is sad because Mary can’t let go of the corpse. If she would let go and look past. We can get past death, because we haven’t looked at it yet. We avert.

We have overlooked our fragility, lack of control, vulnerability, ephemerality, and utter ignorance. The obvious is that a dead body decays faster than one that is alive, but both are wasting away. The individual is a flimsy disguise. The stories and stuff do not protect, neither does God or religion. The church, the government, and your investments are vulnerable. How are you going to get away from Truth? It’s obvious.

Vulnerable means susceptible. One definition of susceptible is capable. Capable of what? Dying, destroying, birthing, sustaining, all of it. If the universe is susceptible, then what or who is the enemy? Whatever is responsible for life is responsible for destruction of said life. How then are you really vulnerable or real? Death is as easy as falling off a log if you ponder. Surely living is equally as effortless, but not if you’re oblivious to The Obvious.