Nothing Ever Dies

I was listening to the Prairie Home Companion this week. One of the story segments was a continuation of a segment from last week about a snowman in the front yard of a house.

The snowman is quite philosophical and questioning, wondering what the sky looks like since he can’t move, what’s behind him, why he’s here, and so on. Amusing and poignant all at once.

This week the snowman still lives and encounters a new character in the neighborhood, a tree. The tree itself is played by what sounds like a black woman with sass and verve and some attitude. This only seems to be confirmed when the snowman asks the tree what kind of tree she is and the tree says ‘Black walnut baby.’

While the snowman and tree are talking, the snowman wonders what it’s like to die, since he has a sense it will happen soon. The tree responds with ‘Nothing ever dies, it just becomes part of something bigger.’ The snowman asks, ‘Like what?’ The tree says ‘Me. You melt and go into my roots and I grow.’

I wouldn’t normally associate PHC with this kind of wisdom, but this one I like. It’s true – our soul might move on to somewhere else, but everything does into become part of something bigger. Everything on Earth goes back to the ground, to the Earth, to the huge planet we live on. That includes plants, animals, humans, even rocks as they break apart. Even a star when it implodes and dies becomes part of something bigger – another star perhaps, or particles scattered in a galaxy.

What a great piece of wisdom for the day.