Over the past few years or so as I’ve browsed YouTube watching numerous videos on the Porsche Carrera GT and the Nissan Skyline GTR R34 – two of my favorite cars, I kept noticing the same comments “RIP Paul Walker” – popping up over and over and over again. This led me to think about how much we hold on to people we love and admire who have died – and how that can be damaging to our religious principles and our mental health.
We all know the fundamental reality: we will die one day and no one knows when or how that will occur. Death of someone whom we considered very close to us – either through being of family or friend relations, or admiration of a famous figure via their looks, positive behavior and actions (celebrity actor, musician, politician, whoever) – does contain heavy agony. The challenge is to maintain a healthy level of sorrowful grievance without falling into emotional instability and madness. Having such levels of instability will inevitably lead us to self-destruction. We will be stuck in a constant state of sadness and depression due to refusal of acceptance of reality – those whom we loved are now dead. Their time of living is up, and those that are still living must continue on with the remaining time in their own lives.
This internal denial comes from a corrupted, obsessive love we have for those people who have passed on. That love is so strong, we let it consume and corrupt us that we hold on to the person, instead of their actions. Most of this love comes from the good, positive actions that those people whom we love and admire did. So it only makes logical sense to honor them and simultaneously move on from their passing by continuing the same positive efforts they did. However, our intentions should not be directly linked to them, but rather to what we know and believe are the outcomes of the effort. In this way we avoid falling down the slippery slope of remembering the person and restarting the cycle of sorrow.
From a religious perspective, moving on after death is very important because the aforementioned obsessive love causes us to slide down a slippery slope to polytheism. Constant remembrance leads us to believe that person did so much good they should be remembered for all of time. So we put up tributes and memorials. We hold a scared day to celebrate the anniversary of the day they did something great or the day of their passing. We name things in their honor. We carve and set up statues of them. Inevitably, we convince ourselves, with the urge and misguidance of Satan, that they are the only source of goodness and well-being. Lo and behold, idolatry ensues as we abandon belief in a God, and replace Him with that beloved person who died.
Such are the dangers of remembrance. We must be careful not to let our desires of love for people corrupt our principles and values such that we head towards idolatry and depression.