Life is Fleeting by Todd Rutherford ? ArticleDesire.com

The instinct to survive is evidenced by our reverence for longevity. We honor those who have lived past 80; it?s truly an achievement. However, in the grand scheme of things, our lives are over in a flash-even at 80 or older. J. Larry Nance?s Universe touches on themes of love, life, and the mysteries of the universe. Beyond these themes, Universe also examines the temporal nature of life.

The following poem, in all its irony, depicts the true nature of how fleeting life is:

I bought $100,000

of accidental life
insurance protection .

But I was killed anyway.

Here, Nance is offering up an ironic play on words by poking a bit of fun at the semantics of life insurance. The word ?protection? implies that the policy is a buffer against the inevitable-death. The poem is ironic on another level as well, by employing the first person perspective of someone who, as per the last line, is presumably dead. The reader will certainly be prompted to ponder the fleeting quality of life, and perhaps be brought down to earth by death?s inescapable finality.

As inevitable as death is, it?s a much a part of nature?s cycle as is life. We return to the soil from which we?re made, which brings to mind the concept of time as a fleeting aspect of life.

In a poem titled ?Time,? there is a passage that describes time at its fleeting best:

Lights, broken days,
Sun into blue, green,
amber, split and divided;
to be re-assembled in
time once again.

The author employs vivid imagery here, light divided into the colors of the visual spectrum, ?split and divided? as in a beautiful sunset. Again the author uses irony, as time is often thought of as both linear and cyclical. Time ?re-assembles? itself with each new day, yet we know it?s temporal nature when applied to a life that?s destined to die.

J. Larry Nance?s Universe is not poetry at a glance-it beckons the reader to think. It may even bring the reader out of his/her comfort zone to think about life as temporal, as it puts the reader face to face with mortality. One thing is certain; the reader will come away with a new perspective on life, death, and his/her place in the universe.

Time is one of those resources that have an infinite cycle, self-destructing and then re-assembling from day to night and vice versa. The agendum of life is full of tasks that before you know it, time is gone. When it returns, you may cease to exist. Ultimately, it is important to understand the momentary nature of life and seize the day that is given. Though this should not be part of myriad mysteries of the universe, the concept of ephemeral life is a concept that few people understand.

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