Bones and What We Leave Behind
The moral case for understanding what happens when you're no longer here.
People like to believe that they go on to a better place.
Whether or not this is true is something worthy of debate. Although what isn't up for debate is the fact that we don't just evaporate into thin air when we do. Unless there's some sort of terrible fire and even then you still end up leaving ashes. Our bodies are something we have which doesn't go anywhere. Not without the intervention of those who are still here. They have to deal with the fact that we have left them with this task. Depending on how we passed away, they might even have to deal with whoever or whatever made us die. The scars we took on while we were alive are still there. Even without us, the circumstances of our deaths leave behind a record of what happened both to us as well as to other people.
Because of course we didn't just live alone in the woods our whole lives relying entirely on ourselves. The people around us have similar scars, both from their own actions but also from the actions we took to leave scars on other people. We might be gone but they live on with those scars. It makes dealing with us a complicated situation. They still remember the fight you had with them six months ago which they're not over. As a result of our deaths, not only will we not be able to resolve these problems, but neither will they. It creates another scar for them to deal with. One that may never heal, leading them to sometimes inflict a scar on someone else.
We try to limit the scars we inflict on ourselves and other people as much as possible, but no matter how much we might want to, it's never a perfect process. For all you know, you might have inflicted a scar on someone without even knowing it and that lead to the circumstances of your death. All you can hope is that somehow the scars you have because of it will help find out what caused you to have such a tragic ending.
Bones is very much about the scars we leave behind. Temperance Brennan, as played brilliantly by Emily Deschanel, is also known as Bones. In part because of her obsession with the bones people leave behind when they die. After all, it's the most fundamental part of our bodies. The things which hold us up and make us able to live in this world, but it's also the part of us which takes the most damage. Where those scars are most visible to anyone who can see them. From these scars, our lives can be laid out for anyone who might need to know what happened. Not only to solve the question of whether someone killed us, but also just to give those we leave behind a sense of closure.
To know that even if we may have gone to another place, there is still some part of us for people to hold on to. Maybe even heal some of the scars we left on other people.
It's an important thing to explore, so do yourself a favour and come to terms with what we leave behind by checking out Bones as soon as you can.
You can find Bones on Hulu as well as Amazon Prime.
Really thoughtful piece. Many people spend theirs lives thinking about legacy but the true is for 99.999% of us we will be totally forgotten within 4 generations.