Will your life cast a nuclear shadow? Answering the final question of Hamilton.
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on
Was lucky enough to see Hamilton last night where the last line of the last song asked, “Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?”
For some reason the mental image which came to me was that of a nuclear shadow. When an atomic blast occurs a nuclear shadow is created, much like a shadow created by the sun; but instead of emitting UV rays, the blast emits thermal radiation so that the nuclear shadow of the object can be permanently etched into rock surfaces.
As my wife and I sat over dinner and discussed the play, the analogy crystallized. There have been those throughout history who possessed a light of such intensity which shone so strongly that long after they were gone their life and story left a nuclear shadow, scarring the rocks of history itself.
“Am I the lightbulb which carries the light or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?” -Joseph Campbell
I attended a friend’s funeral a number of years back. His family had been quite conservative but he possessed a free spirit which struggled within the confines of their rules. At the service, the family sought to tell his story and portray him as they wanted him remembered. But his light was too strong, it had etched itself onto the souls of those in attendance. His playful, reckless, yet caring life had cast a shadow which could not be scrubbed away by those trying to narrowly tell his story.
Before his death, Joseph Campbell spoke in a lecture on the changes which occur in you as you shift your notion of who you are away from the material body and begin to identify with the soul, the seat of consciousness which is unchanging. He famously responded to the interviewer rhetorically by asking, “Am I the lightbulb which carries the light or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?” The more we identify with the source of the light and the less we identify with the bulb, the stronger the light inside of us grows. As a result, our life casts a nuclear shadow and we can finally answer the final question of Hamilton, “Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?”.
