It seems that whenever a celebrity passes away, the fragileness of life is really brought into focus. We are here, and then we are gone. That's just the reality of life. But, I think most people don't really think about the wider implications of what will happen when they pass away.
 
Yesterday, the actor James Van Der Beek passed away due to colorectal cancer. Apparently, that's the current leading cause of death of men under fifty, at least here in the United States. It's sad, really. He was only forty-eight years old. And, he leaves behind his wife and six children.
 
Forty-eight, that's the same age my father died when I was ten years old. So yes, people can die. Die, much earlier in their life than is expected.
 
One of the facts that has been widely overlooked, with the passing of Van Der Beek, is that Bud Cort, of Harold and Maude fame, he died yesterday, as well. But, he was seventy-seven, so there's something a bit more expected when somebody passes away at that age. That doesn't make it any easier for the loved ones, but it just is somehow more acknowledged.
 
A lot of people die young. My friend, Kris Derrig, who made the legendary Les Paul that Slash played on, Appetite for Destruction, he died when he was only thirty-two. Complications from lung cancer. Good guy. Sorely missed. A man, Mark Williams, who worked with Don Jackson and I on, The Roller Blade Seven, he died when he was only thirty-eight. Complications from prostate cancer. He and I were born the same year. And, as mentioned, my father died at forty-eight from a massive heart attack. He was at work, as manager of the Los Angeles Forum, when he apparently just keeled over and died.
 
The thing is, life is life, and then it's over. When it comes at you slowly, like say, dying from cancer, there is perhaps some more time for mental preparation. But, that doesn't make it any easier. And, I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.
 
I was reading this morning that Van Der Beek's family has set up a Go Fund Me page, to take care of expenses. Because, obviously, the actor hasn't been working for quite a while since he's been diagnosed.
 
What will become of that family? I don't know? I know it was a massive shock to my life when my father died at forty-eight, and the things that happened after that really did a lot of destructive stuff to me as a human being, and the overall evolution of my life. But, here I still am, for whatever it's worth.
 
I know this guy, he's a few years older than me, and he recently just had another child. Now, this guy is in great shape and he looks very good for his age. But, the fact of the fact is, by the time that kid is ten years old, he's going to be eighty. What ten year old wants an eighty year old as a father. Plus, if he's lucky enough to live that long, when his kid turns twenty, he's going to be ninety. You know, it's just one of those things, just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.
 
From the metaphysical perspective, we all know we're going to die at some point. But, all we can live is what we live. This is where the complications of life arise. This is where karma arises. This is where religion arises. This is where the promise of heaven and/or hell, paradise with Allah, Nirvana with the Buddha, and all of that kind of stuff comes from. There's all of these promises made about what we're going to meet when we die, based upon who we are while we are living. This is why all religions propagate the fact that you really need to be as good as possible, because goodness is the only way you can reach that higher state of being after you've passed away.
 
But, I'm sorry, all that means nothing! It's like, the awards they give to people after they've passed away. What does it mean? They're dead! If you want to let someone know they're loved, you've got to reach out to them while they are alive.

No matter what they believed, no matter what you believe, there is one simple reality, dead is dead, and then it’s just the living who are left to deal with what you have left behind.
 
So, here's the question, what are you leaving behind? If you were to pass away today, what would be left in your wake?
 
A sidebar here… You know, when I was twenty-one, I was riding my motorcycle, and a car hit me, and literally almost killed me. For the first few days, they thought I was nothing but dead. Luckily, some neurologist drilled into my skull, stopped the bleeding in my brain, and lifted my skull off of my frontal lobe. I was banged up as all fuck, and I was never the same. Yet, I was alive. And I'm here to this day. Meaning, you can die at any moment. Are you, your life, and your karma ready to meet that ultimate stage? Because that's what it is, as we're all going to go there. And really, nobody knows what's going to happen once you get there. It's all philosophic bullshit. So again, are you ready to meet your maker, as the old saying goes.  If you’re not, you should really stop screwing around and get your life in order. Because when you're dead, you're dead and it can happen at any moment.