The Angel of Death Came to David's Room

He said friend it's time to go

Today’s a good day to talk death. It is of course the anniversary of the 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 Americans. It’s also the anniversary of the 1973 attacks that smashed Chilean democracy and brought Augusto Pinochet to power. In both cases the deaths on September 11th were dwarfed by those that would follow.

So let’s talk death. Using a song, some scripture, some psych, a death doula, John Brown, Earnest Becker, and Henry David Thoreau.

1) Song structure, fading family, a dialog with death:

Here’s the story:

One evening King David got up from bed and walked around on the roof of the palace, and saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her, then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” So David sent for the woman’s husband Uriah and talked with him, and sent him to his commander with a letter saying “put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” The commander did, and Uriah died. When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his palace, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

David burned with anger against this man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “Behold, you are the man!”

2) Defenses, routes around, artistry and strategy, songs as scaffolding, your death means you no harm:

And here at last is the song itself:

Thank you for your interest friends and enemies and internet strangers.