Once More Into the Fray

Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I will ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day

These are the words we are left with to contemplate at the end of “The Grey.” They are derived from a poem written by the director, Joe Carnahan. The ending scene is intense. For two hours we bear witness to a fight for survival against all the odds, and when it looks like the hero will finally escape, we see that his journey has taken him all the way back into the heart of the fight. There is no place left to run. He is forced to face the fight head on, staring directly into the fear he had so hoped to avoid.

What is your fray? What is that thing that has you running scared? What would you rather not accept, embrace, and enter with all of your might? Fray is defined as “the ripping of fabric.” In our context, life is this medium, and fears are the rips. Try as you must, the fabric must be and will be ripped, for this is what it means to live. And with this deduction, we have arrived at the purpose of life. Life is intended to be lived, as music is to dance. Nothing more, nothing less. Fear is the one pushing us to experience life, one rip at a time until our dissolution when a new song plays and a new dance begins. You can choose to dance by yourself or find a partner and be fulfilled; such is the case with life.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain

“So, Michael, what does it mean to live?” The same as it means to dance! You move one leg in front of the other and figure it out along the way. Soon you will develop a rhythm or pace that is all yours as you forgo all concern with reaching a destination. Each of us has to get here by following our heart and not our head. The point is not to allow fear to stop you. The fabric must be and will be ripped. Only those who are blind will continue to fight against it. Learn to embrace fear, seek it out, and ask for more, as it holds the key to a meaningful life. This dance in the moment is what it means to live and die on this day. And remember that when all else fails, just dance, moving to the melody that punctuates the silence that once was, and soon will be again. This impermanence is the fundamental principle of attainment and dissolution. The Yin and Yang in which we all must dance.