Afterlife

Throughout my adult life, I have been obsessed with death and dying, and every time I think about it, I end up recoiling, fearful of death and the contemplating the notion that one day all of us simply will cease to exist. As much as I’d love to believe in a heaven or some sort of afterlife or reincarnation, I don’t. Like religious faith, I don’t have any belief in an afterlife, and as much as I'd like to believe in ghosts, I generally don't.

However, struck one night in the wee hours, I heard guitar music vividly coming from inside my house. It was real, or at least it felt really real. I got up and checked the house and there was no evidence of what I had heard. But I knew I heard it. I asked a friend, firm in their religious beliefs, what they made of it. We ended talking about death and afterlife. They told me they believe in a hell so horrific that they cannot speak of it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I think once we die, we simply cease to exist and perhaps nothing further happens. That’s it.

Inspired by these events, I wrote a song called “Puddles” engaging these themes. Here's a video of a live performance of the song in my basement studio: