Rage against death

Make your mark while you still can.

Oct 02, 2024

The filmmaker Kevin Smith has a great outlook on life, captured in the quote above. Transcript below.

We are here for such a short trip. Stomp on the terra, kids. Make your mark. Make motherfuckers smile. Leave nothing unsaid. Empty your tank. Help others shine. Abandon all the differences we use to separate us and unite against the only real enemy, that stupid fucking grave that waits for us all. Rage against death by making some art today.
—Kevin Smith

His meaning is evident, but worth exploring a little.

We don’t get forever

We are here for such a short trip.

We live for a limited time. Life has an expiry date.

It goes faster than people realize. Just ask anyone in their eighties.

This is partly because we can become distracted, often a self-inflicted wound as we embrace digital toys that make our lives fun.

In doing so many act like they will live forever, a fatal mistake. They watch too much TV or fall into online traps. They squander time on things they don’t really value.

We can languish in unfulfilling careers for decades, or embrace destructive habits to blot out the horror of it all; drinking to excess, taking drugs or binging on immersive entertainment, from video games to soap operas.

Being reminded of the shortness of the trip is the motivation to occasionally shake it up and change direction. Why not if it is going to end anyway?

Make your mark

Stomp on the terra, kids. Make your mark. Make people smile. Leave nothing unsaid. Empty your tank.

Do something with your life. Make it count.

Don’t let your life be for nothing. It must matter, especially to you.

Don’t be afraid to say your piece either. It is absurd we hesitate with these things.

Good manners are important of course. But holding back, bottling it all up, never quite expressing it, this is unhealthy. It makes us bitter.

It can lead to being too reserved, too inhibited. Instead, empty the tank by the end. Don’t imagine you are saving it for something better. You are alive now.

Everyone has a reservoir of energy, talent and experience to draw upon. It is designed to replenish itself through use. Don’t be afraid to use it.

It works best as an investment model, and using it pays dividends. This provides more energy for future efforts.

So make your mark by making use of your skills and talents, and don’t convince yourself holding back for some excellent reason is a good strategy, it isn’t.

Use it all. Give it your best shot. This is your only life.

Lift others up

Help others shine. Abandon all the differences we use to separate us and unite against the only real enemy, that stupid fucking grave that waits for us all.

Helping others has long been understood as uplifting. Altruism seems to be baked into us.

It is a quirk of the human mind we often get more from helping others than ourselves. Charity work, volunteering, lending a helping hand.

There is something life affirming about it. Most of us don’t do this enough. We myopically focus on ourselves for survival purposes but forget life cannot just be about surviving, it must be fully lived.

By helping others in need we often reinforce all we have in common even if we have profound differences.

All of us can be down and out. We can be unlucky. But Smith reminds us we all have the same fate. We die. It all ends for everyone in the cold grave. Your life passed, gone, time’s up. No one escapes.

The absurdity of this universal fact ought to draw us together, but it rarely does. We conveniently ignore it because it depresses us.

So don’t ignore it. Do what Kevin Smith does and use it as motivation.

Produce rather than consume

Rage against death by making some art today.

Our only hope for immortality is to create something that will outlive us.

The most common is to make children. The act of bringing new life into the world often changes people. It is a daily reminder of the power of life.

But proxies exist; writing, music, art. Smith is suggesting we do this too.

We all have talent. We all have aptitudes and skills, and life gives us experiences. The combination of these with some effort, some confidence and a little luck can create something new. It can create art.

This is good advice. Make your own contribution. You never know who needs what you can do.

Someone out there may appreciate your film, your novel or your song. Maybe they need the benefits of your life experience, the bad with the good. It may give them hope, or perspective or confidence they themselves lack.

Do not deprive the world of what you can produce. It may be the very thing that turns someone else’s life around just in the nick of time.

Have the courage to share your gifts. Make your contribution.

Grab life

Death is coming for us all. Our mortal lives end. We all share this fate, so we have something in common. Yet we act like aliens to each other.

Smith suggests we use our commonality better. We remember the other fellow will one day die and so will we. We should reflect on this a little more.

It is a useful recalibration technique. Life is fleeting; grab it, do something with it. Make it yours. Make something that will outlive you. Make something because it may help others.

Life may be short, and that grave is waiting, but not yet. Not today. Go out and make your mark while you still can.