The Absence

I recently read a book by Peter Arnell called "Shift"- about rebranding your business and identity, and in it he talked in depth about Michelangelo's sculpture- the Pieta- of Mary holding the adult Jesus in her arms.  He talked about how the sculpture was not in proportion to how the figures would have been in real life- the limbs were not on a scale of real limbs, and how the artist used the carving away of space to make as much of an impact as the marble itself.  Basically, what was not there is as important as what is there.  In his book, the analogy was meant to explain that what you reveal is as important as what you leave out in your life.  It lead me to think about an interesting analogy of life and death based on a parallel principle- when someone close to us dies, it carves away a big part of our lives and hearts.  The absence of what was once there becomes unbelievably important to our whole identity.  The two- life and death- work in tandem to create the sculpture of this life. 

There is no Zen moment to be found in the ideology of death- but there is comfort knowing that what is visually "not there" is still relevant, an important part of our lives.  It cannot be taken away, and although death is real and tangible, it is just a world away to the next level, the beyond Here and Now.  What is invisible lives on, forever a part of us. What is "carved out" is as important as what is right in front of us.