A proper ending is not necessarily a "happy" ending, but it's close. Anyone who's paid for massages can attest to this: a "happy" ending is more intense and instantly gratifying; but a proper ending redirects your focus to the deeper good you've experienced, and allows you to enjoy the pleasant fatigue of being truly relaxed and alive for an extended period of time. One isn't really better than the other, objectively speaking. They each have merit. Which one you prefer just happens to depend on which one you prefer.
Endings are never really endings. It's really just the part where the narrative changes. The narrative changes and goes off in another direction and becomes another story. A new beginning. The water at the bottom of the falls doesn't stop moving or cease to exist. It just bubbles and torrents and gets itself all over the place and keeps going. There are always new bodies of water to inhabit, new tributaries. Endings are good. The End means it's time to focus on another direction, a change in course. A new current.
An end isn't an end unless you own the end and then let go of the story/chapter/song/movie/relationship/belief/line/idea about yourself that you've been holding onto for dear life. Let go of that bitch (or those bitches, whatever the case may be) with no regrets. You've got to let it go. Everything comes to an end. Oh, you can go back and dredge it up and try to crawl back inside it, but it's never what it was, is it? And then what's your memory about? Is it about the good thing that ended? Or is it about the rotten festering corpse of the good thing that you dug up and tried to reinhabit? Sometimes it's best to let go for good the first time...just sayin'!
The End offers promise...something always happens after The End. Doesn't matter what The End is, or what it looks like, or who's left standing, or who came, or who got killed, or who woke up, or who lost, or who's got his tongue down Elizabeth Taylor's throat. The affair ends, the marriage ends, the funeral ends, the party ends, the movie ends, the night ends, the song ends, the career ends, the life ends. And then the next thing happens.
There's something really special about living as long as I have. And there's something really special about not. The dead live with us, and the living follow the dead. I bet you've got at least one memory of a moment in your life wherein, if just one element had been different, if you'd made just one decision differently, if you hadn't been right where you were when you were...that would have been The End for you. Makes you feel grateful, don't it? That you're here, reading this blog? Thought so! :)
Eventually, we're allowed to be happy. We allow ourselves to be happy. We admit that it's possible. Not evil. Deserved! An option, at least. We admit that cynicism is weak, bitchiness is pathetic, and superiority is a legend in its own mind. I can inhabit this space, this space that isn't Einstein or Harry Hay or Brangelina. It isn't a porn star space, isn't a rich space, isn't a famous space, isn't a 20 year old space, or a trust fund Gossip Girl Project Runway Bowie Madonna GaGa space...and yet, I can inhabit this space and be proud of it. This is my space! And it's a part of something much larger and more important than all that extra added busy-ness we're told by corporations and media that we must be/do/have in order to be successful/happy/fulfilled/complete. Not that there's anything wrong with being Speidy or Octomom or Jon and Kate (suddenly they can't live without each other, dontcha know) or Balloon Boy's crazy fucking media whore of a Dad (although I love Balloon Boy and all that he represents...AWESOME!!!). Sorry...back to my point, which is this: That influence of marketing ends. (Seriously!) And we move beyond it. (No lie!)
The best kind of end is a fabulous end. A Lana Turner end. A diamonds end. Not an inevitable sequel end, but an end that does its own job. A beautiful 21 year old ass end that defies gravity and has just a hint of fur and no lines yet and no baggage. An end that knows its an end and works itself for everything it's got. I love a good ending. All good things must come to an end. And all endings are good, for that matter, if you look at them in the right light. Which is the only light to use, honey. You should know that by now. An end is an end is an end and, of course, a beginning. This ain't poetry, but it is. It's a poem for you, my sweet little piece of candy (best candy I ever tasted, by the way). It's a verse. It's a moment. It's an end.And now, let's see what's next...shall we?
*concept appropriated from Planet Fabulon, a Planet that doesn't mind, and that knows a thing or 2 about endings.
