“Nothing Gold...”

Dear Reader, 

Recently I read Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can  Stay.” This eight-line composition reflects on the beauty  and impermanence of life. Frost describes how all things dwindle with time, and how beauty fades to nothingness. The sunset you saw last night lives only in your mind; the christening of your child is only a memory; the wealth you accumulated over the years becomes value-less, since shrouds have no pockets. 

The poet is saying that the green of spring’s birth eventually evolves to the gold of  full being in summer. But autumn winds blow through  our lives, and the fleeting beauty of gold vanishes, much  as the idyll of Eden gave way to the toil and pain of  our current existence. Each cycle of life brings its own  aesthetics, both new and familiar to the fore, as all things  are limited and temporary.

Being transitions into non-being over time as the body  crumbles to dust. The raging priorities driven by bodily  and ego needs – the hunger for food, the search for shelter,  the quest for riches, power, and prestige – these all wane  to nothing. Infinity prevails throughout, and the transpersonal ideals – love, compassion, and a desire for truth  and beauty – suffuse whatever reality one experiences in  that future state. 

Most Christians, through faith, believe in a permanent afterlife with God which supersedes an impermanent physical life on earth. The afterlife is contingent on how  well one handles the body and gifts bestowed on earth. If we accumulate and amass treasure, then we must give and share to alleviate the plight of our fellow travelers. If we attain power and influence, then we must leverage these forces to better the world for all of us, not inordinately for  a few. Subjugating the soul in favor of the body’s cravings during life may determine the final outcome; complete and everlasting loneliness instead of perpetual ecstasy. 

In essence, our bodily form is a temporary symbol of all  that is beautiful and important, but we cannot stay in this  form, for nothing here is changeless forever. That’s why  recognition of the non-being of the soul is critical to how  well we fare in eternity.

Patrick J. Wood 

Publisher 

Author of “Dear Reader” and “Tapestry of Love and Loss”