If what has proceeded has encouraged you to the point that you have implicitly or explicitly become a Thanatist, you’ll have to consider how you want to talk about your new-found faith. There’s a passage in the book of Peter in the New Testament that states, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” The problem for me as a Christian was that no one asked. By saying this, I don’t mean that Christianity didn’t change me noticeably (it did, and for the better), but for whatever reason, no one asked.
As a Thanatist, however, people will ask. They will recognize that you approach the world differently than they do. They will notice an inner confidence that doesn’t feel fake. Because of this, whether you want to or not, when you allow Thanatism to fully transform you, you will be forced to discuss what has made you who you are. In other words, whether you want to be or not, as a Thanatist, you will become a beacon for a new way of living.
Fortunately, as Thanatiststs, we have a firm and true belief at our core. We don’t have to flail around for what to say. We don’t have to be ashamed of what we hold at our center. Rather, we can simply speak. No planning. No worries about what our words will say about us. Just speak, and the spring from which your words flow will take care of the rest.
Additionally, being a beacon for Thanatism is less about talking and more about listening. It’s less about showing and more about seeing. The first time you look into the eyes of another as a pure receptacle for their being, you’ll want to avert your eyes. Their personhood, flowing forth, unfiltered, will overwhelm you. You’ll see so much of who they are, teetering on the edge of their lips, just waiting for the opportunity to share themselves freely.
It’s at that moment you’ll know that Thanatism has truly entered into your relationships with others. It’s when the other recognizes that you’re able to look through the reflection of yourself into their eyes and see them for who they are. It’s when they look into you and rather than seeing judgement, they see another broken human being just trying to find their way in the world. It’s when the vacuum left in the void of what was once your ever-me draws out their personhood into a safe place where it can simply be held by another person for a moment in time.
As Thanatists, we don’t have much in this world. We don’t have someone greater than ourselves who cares for us. We understand that our fellow human beings are all that we really have. But it is in this realization of our utter isolation from any other, in this universe where the vastness of space far outstrips any being’s ability to traverse it, when we fully realize that the broken and frustrating humans who currently surround us are all we will ever know, that we find our greatest treasure.
For in the acceptance of our own mortality and our own inconsequentiality, we create a space for the other to dwell within us. And when we open up and allow the other a place to dwell, we realize that we were never built for anything better. We’re not living in a practice world so we can become the perfect subjects in another. This world and these people are all we will ever have, but when we allow ourselves to experience each other fully, we realize that we are more than we will ever need.
If you’re reading this and it’s beginning to resonate with you, that makes two of us, and Thanatist Two is better than Thanatist One. I, like many of you, long to connect more deeply with those around me. I tire of speaking about superficialities. Thanatism has set my core differently enough that much of the world’s concerns are no longer my own. If you too would like to relate more deeply with other beings who live in the real, may you consider this an invitation to connect. You are not alone. We are real. We are ready. And we are waiting.