the death of great men: remembering david lynch
in many ways you could say david lynch and i share opposite goals. mine are, largely, to demystify reality. his mission was seemingly to bring others closer to the mystery in reality. where he is focused on the individual, i focus on the societal and the universal (in the cosmic sense). where there is contradiction lies a dialectic to synthesize- lynch's work often played in this dialectic, using his films to reflect the individual (the viewer) through the societal, or through confrontation with the cosmic strangeness of existence. and for all i do, demystifying reality often means facing and becoming comfortable with the mysteries of society, existence and myself. in my personal life, lynch's work and his legacy have certainly played a role in my development, that i now carry forward alongside other influences with my own interpretations and goals.
it might feel odd to you that i speak of lynch here as though he and i are equals- he was a great director, and i am barely more than an amateur (in its loving definition). that is precisely what i intend to convey here, not that i am as great as david lynch, but that david lynch is the same as the rest of us. i would not put words in the mouth of a dead person, but it seems lynch himself felt much the same: not desiring to be cast as an unknowable auteur, but a humble person who wanted to give you something through his work. in my journey to demystify, i find it important now and elsewhere to assert there are no "great men".
there are no secret equations "great minds" are privy to the rest of us are not. by refusing to place a barrier between us and them, we allow ourselves to be challenged to rise to the same heights we perceive them to be at. when we place that barrier between ourselves and them, we are putting ourselves down--mystifying, obfuscating. knowledge and experience are mutually reinforcing things that drive us into more refined and capable versions of ourselves. we do this by coming to know and following what we love. that is all those we enshrine those as "great" are doing themselves.
that was one of lynch's final messages, to keep doing what you love--"i hope you are all haing a lot of fun working on your favorite projects." maybe nobody will ever be "david lynch" again, but no one has to be. nobody will ever be you again, either. we are all born of the same earth and the same universe, tugging with web of life in our own tiny little ways, leaving our ripples behind long after we are gone. in his death, we can celebrate the ripples he left behind, and take the opportunity to reflect on what they mean to us, and how we will harmonize their sound while we're still here ourselves.