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 'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict
Loose Ends
Before I go on a trip, I naturally try to tie up any loose ends. There are always things that you want to close out but have to leave, and the sobering thought is that is very much the nature of life itself.
I like to think that my life will end up as a fully rounded whole, which of course in one sense it may do, but just like any other trip, the departure can never be as neat as all that. There are bound to be outstanding issues of one kind or another.
There are always those things you forget, not that you can take things with you when you die, but things like locking the back door or leaving a note to stop the newspapers being delivered. Perhaps that is what ghosts are all about: people who should have done something, but didn’t. Whether they forgot or were pig headed, or simply lacked the courage could also be a factor. Indeed it could be even more complex than that. I can think of things that I should really do, but I don’t, not because I am not equal to the task, but because it might disturb another’s peace of mind. ‘Things best left unsaid,’ as the saying goes.
Of course, from our present standpoint we also have to deal with things that we think should have taken place with those who have now gone. We didn’t forget, or perhaps we did, but whatever the reason, we never got to it in time and now never will.
These untidy strands exist on both sides of the fence and infiltrate so much of our existence that it could be what keeps the whole cycle rolling on. It is rather like the discovery that what was first taken to be the emptiness of Space is full of stuff that actually drives the Universe. At first I was a little embarrassed at calling it ‘stuff’ like a kid in High School might do, but on second thoughts it is not such a sloppy word. After all, we talk about ‘the stuff of life’, and as far as ‘life’ is concerned, this could just be our Loose Ends.
Perhaps on the other hand, the truth behind the mystery is that the things that you wanted to say but didn’t were known already and the things that you wanted to do, but didn’t, would not have worked out in the way you thought.
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Now, this notion seems to have some elemental truth to it. Our lives can be many things, but looking back, I am in the most part surprised, surprised that while we blindly bash our heads against this or that wall, or drag ourselves over seemingly insurmountable obstacles, like a great painting, while the detail can be ragged, there is an overall balance to the whole thing.
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