Transcendence
There's a moment in the new film The Dig that tore me down. I don't want to give too much away, but it involves a line about a queen sailing through space on a ship. The scene moved me so much because it so perfectly captured the way I've often felt about death involving my loved ones: that deep hope and faith that I will see them again, in some form, although most likely in one that our human minds cannot comprehend. Lately I keep going back again and again to why art matters the way it does: because it works the best when it manages to articulate the abstract notions that seem impossible to articulate. I had a similar experience earlier this week when I read " A Death in the Family ", a long short story by Billy O'Callaghan that is one of the best pieces of literature I've ever read. This story manages to capture the way it feels to be at a death bed, how the waiting feels, how the mystery of it all feels. Anyone who has experienced the loss