In the afterglow of a great novel

Reading a great novelist such as Margaret Atwood makes one think about the weightier things in life. And I love it when a novelist can do that.

I've been contemplating several aspects of life and you cannot do that without of course thinking about death. It may sound morbid but on the contrary I think it can be somewhat encouraging. After all, none of us are getting out of this life alive, so why not give some thought to it?

I especially have thought about the little deaths and re-births of all types of relationships. Example...my husband and I have been married now for over 19 years. Our relationship is much different than it was in the beginning. It has in a sense, died and been re-born a thousand times. It's been at times demanding, diffult and wonderfully creative.

There are parts of a relationship that one can miss..that I can miss, but the cold hard truth of the matter is this: moving forward in a relationship means that parts of the relationship must die (go away, cease to exist) so that new parts can be reborn. This is a good thing, a necessary thing, the only way to maintain the "life" of a relationship.

I wonder, then, why we don't give more thought to this? Why we don't look at the life cycles of relationships, of organizations -- businesses, churches, schools -- and say, "it's been a good run, but it's time for a new birth, which by its very nature insists upon some type of death."

I think about church, especially, at this time. Why don't we choose to bring in hospice and other forms of dignified death to allow a congregation to die a peaceful, due death? Why don't we want to recognize that there are significant roles to play when a congregation ceases to be a functional entity, and that its time has come to be reborn and therefore to die from "natural causes". After all, even the musicians aboard the Titanic had their purpose. What creative ways can we learn to allow a church, an organization to die with dignity and honor?

We talk so much about birthing new things -- churches, new businesses, and yet our culture is littered with the reality that to do that, ideas must die and be re-born in new ways. Far from being depressing, to me this is enlightening, exciting even to realize that new forms of living, breathing and working can result from simply realizing that we need to go a different way.

What would LandsEnd be without the demise of Sears? Where would we be if we were all still using punch cards instead of high speed internet? Who among us would argue that HDTV isn't far above the old black and white consoles?

Instead of wringing our hands and mourning, can't we stop and realize yes, this is hard but necessary and the only way through life is through death?