Bonus Prompt from The Twilight Zone of Reality

Matters Of Life And Death

The interplay between free will and predetermination

[Continuing to review my profile for interesting pieces that I never emailed to my subscribers because I didn’t have more than a few until the fall of 2021 (I now have 76 — thank you all), I think you will find this piece interesting]

Introduction

“The Twilight Zone … created and presented by Rod Serling, ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Each episode presents a stand-alone story in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as entering “the Twilight Zone,” often with a surprise ending and a moral. Although predominantly science-fiction, the show’s paranormal and Kafkaesque events leaned the show towards fantasy and horror. The phrase “twilight zone,” inspired by the series, is used to describe surreal experiences.”

One of my favorite episodes involves societal constructions. A woman has been in a horrific accident. Until the end, the entire episode contains nothing but the image of her completely bandaged face and conversations between her and the doctors and nurses about the accident and whether or not the reconstructive surgery would be successful and preparing her’s and the viewers’ expectations for the worst. The bandages come off revealing a drop-dead gorgeous face — classically and undeniably beautiful. My relief is met with horrific reactions from the doctors and nurses, who the camera then reveals look somewhat like this:

Discussion

The prologue of each show contained Serling setting the scene. My full prompt suggestion:

“Imagine if you will,” I say in my best distinctive Rod Serling voice, “a world in which we accept that date of death, but not the how, is determined before you are born. How would that ‘truth’ affect you, your thinking or your actions?”

Note I did not say imagine awareness of the date — just that the date is set in stone.

My beliefs regarding free will and predetermination as they pertain to matters of life and death

Deaths’ facts differ still Will drives lives’ paths to deaths’ dates Love burns — searing pain Deepest loss most room for gain Endless pain, Light fills the drain

The first two lines of the poem represent my belief in the predestination of the date of death, but that our paths to death, how we lead our lives, we do very much determine through the exercise of free will. The third line evokes the excruciating pain felt by the soulmate left behind. I almost ended there with that haiku. Yet, I did not want the poem to leave the reader with the dark feeling of hopelessness. So, I added a turn to Light — the last two lines paint a silver lining. While nary a day shall pass that I will not mourn the sudden and tragic loss of my 36.5-year-old lover just over a year ago,

my infinitely large pain pockets will never empty, meaning as they drain, they contain space for an infinite amount of Light to shine. (As an aside, this upper poem and lower poem connected by a pivot in the middle, with a 5/7/5/7/7 syllable structure is the purest form of tanka. See Brett Christensen’s informative story.)

So, how do my beliefs affect my thinking and how do I think they should impact society as a whole if adopted? I note at the outset that my beliefs, as taught to me by my spirit guides and highest power Rama, do not depart that much from generally held beliefs. Often when someone dies, the reaction is “God’s will.” The Jewish religion teaches that the strength of one’s moral inventory (aka shadow work)(I have an essay percolating in my head relating shadow work to Steps 4 and 10 of 12-step programs) conducted in the 10-day period between the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) determines on an annual basis whether or not someone will live to see the next annual cycle.

The predetermination-of-date-of-death-essay percolating for months in my split screens involves the implications for tort reform — namely the elimination of unequal valuing of lives as based upon one’s earning potential. That will appear one day in another publication. Today, in response to my prompt I address an issue that touches and haunts the lives of many — suicide.

Suicide

Regardless of whether one feels that suicide is selfish or justified relief, once one realizes that the date of death is predetermined, suicide becomes pointless. One's agony will be relieved through a manner of death that does not destroy the lives of the loved ones left behind. Moreover, even a failed attempt could have disastrous consequences, both for the mental health of family members and the physical quality of life of the survivor — if it is not one’s day to die, the attempt will fail. According to Dr. Harris Stratyner, Ph.D. (champion of Carefrontation), as I learned from him in therapy, the adult children of suicides are 50% more likely to attempt suicide than members of the general population.

Suicide is a very controversial subject. Many shy away from discussing it. Shaming it does not lead to prevention. As an editor of Illumination, I am proud to say that I went to war in our editors’ Slack channel to get these important stories published and that I wrote the new first paragraphs of each story in order to accomplish that.

To close on a spiritual high note:

In 1996, during my first and mostly forgotten foray into the 12-Stepverse, the rehab took us to a “meeting.” The speaker told the story of his suicidal ideation. He had terrible insomnia along with alcoholism. He would stay up for days, drinking in his basement, planning his family-annihilation-suicide. He spent many a night meticulously planning for and rigging the boiler to explode to take out himself, his wife, and his children as his family slept. Then, the night he was ready to pull the switch, he fell asleep. Listening to him tell that story was the first time I felt the presence of God in my life. A presence I later forgot about for too long, but God never forgot about me.

In Rama I create,

Marcus