The world lost a very influential person today. Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away leaving much mourning to come. I wonder why and how we mourn, and don't understand why another's global influence makes them worthy of greater morning.
My friends and readers mention that my opening post was too dense, so I will be unpacking it over other posts.
For now I must focus on current events.
Our actions always point to the value of the objects and subjects involved. We must not mourn Mr Jobs any more than we mourn other death...though many of my iproduct consumer friends will ignore me.
I am not insensitive. I simply note that the value that we find in a person often varies depending on their influence, and it should not. I don't care for Apple products, have never met the man in question, and his person or actions have no direct influence on me.
I am neither inclined, nor persuaded to be emotional.
When we focus on productivity instead of potential and all other things that people have in common, we distract from the purpose of mourning.
Death of another reminds us of our own death, but only insofar as that other personally touched us. We can all come together to mourn someone, and here we aren't really mourning that person more qualitatively more, but rather quantitatively. In my disposition, I cannot cry at every global death, so I must not cry for Steve Jobs', if only for respect of all other deaths I do not mourn. Even tragedies where many people die suddenly, I cannot muster feelings here. Such is life, such is death. We all live, and we all die. Surely someone who adds value to our lives will me mourned more intently, but they are no more worthy of mourning.
Death and the emotions with which we bear it remind us how imperfect we are in our true feelings.
Let's hope we have time to correct our disrespect in time to mourn each other's deaths accordingly.
My friends and readers mention that my opening post was too dense, so I will be unpacking it over other posts.
For now I must focus on current events.
Our actions always point to the value of the objects and subjects involved. We must not mourn Mr Jobs any more than we mourn other death...though many of my iproduct consumer friends will ignore me.
I am not insensitive. I simply note that the value that we find in a person often varies depending on their influence, and it should not. I don't care for Apple products, have never met the man in question, and his person or actions have no direct influence on me.
I am neither inclined, nor persuaded to be emotional.
When we focus on productivity instead of potential and all other things that people have in common, we distract from the purpose of mourning.
Death of another reminds us of our own death, but only insofar as that other personally touched us. We can all come together to mourn someone, and here we aren't really mourning that person more qualitatively more, but rather quantitatively. In my disposition, I cannot cry at every global death, so I must not cry for Steve Jobs', if only for respect of all other deaths I do not mourn. Even tragedies where many people die suddenly, I cannot muster feelings here. Such is life, such is death. We all live, and we all die. Surely someone who adds value to our lives will me mourned more intently, but they are no more worthy of mourning.
Death and the emotions with which we bear it remind us how imperfect we are in our true feelings.
Let's hope we have time to correct our disrespect in time to mourn each other's deaths accordingly.
You're not the only one who feels this way:
ReplyDeletehttp://gawker.com/5847338/