The Grim Reaper

1 - A Grimtroduction

Things were easier before technology, and I’m talking about all technology, even language. I feel old and like I’m complaining about progress and improvements, but I think I have the knowledge to say that. I guess me using language right now to say that about technology makes me a hypocrite, but these are the times we live, and die, in. Well, they’re the times YOU live and die in, I can’t die but I’m always there at death. Being “the Grim Reaper” (as you call it) has its perks, but it is a weird place to find myself and I don’t know if I can even live here either, stuck in a place I can neither live nor die in.

I communicate this whilst constantly on the move going from dying person to dying person, or sometimes persons. I have to be at every death, and while I can manipulate time and maneuver through space to a degree, I cannot go back in time and I cannot pause it, although I can slow time down quite a bit to do my work but this is not always under my control. I do not know what entity or force is getting me from death to death but they do not seem to care what I do as long as I greet the dead with what has come to be a memorized spiel. “Welcome to Death, please go towards the light,” and they pretty much always do. I do not know what the light is, I just know it’s always there and they always go towards and get engulfed by it.

I’ve been doing this since the first humans existed and that was when I appeared. I’m in what I’ve come to understand as another dimension, referred to as the 777th, where I am able to see and be within some boundaries of what I’ve come to learn is called the 4th dimension that humans are able to conceive of and find themselves in. Living humans are unable to see or interact with me, even though some say they can and that they can communicate with the dead as well. If no human has seen me until death, and I can’t even communicate with the dead after they go into the light, I don’t quite understand what these folks are talking about and doing.

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That’s some basics and I can get into more about myself later, but I need to talk about my counterpart, the bringer of birth, The Naif Sower. The Naif Sower also found themself in the same predicament. They’ve been at every human's birth since humans were born, guiding the little ones out of the darkness and into the gray area of the living. Lately, I’ve had some concerns and I don’t think Naif will hear them out. Any work that Naif does leads to work I must do. And while I do not mind my work, there’s not much I can do to influence it. Meanwhile, Naif has found a way to increase their work, which in turn increases mine.

Humans cannot interact with us in most cases, but there are ways around it that both myself and the Naif Sower have happened to come across. While I could continue trying to figure out what and why I am, after hundreds of thousands of years with no better understanding, I feel it’s an unnecessary use of my time and effort, as whatever controls me has still decided to stay anonymous. Naif is not content with this and consistently attempts to stir up drama with what might be nothing.

The most recent series of messings-with began about 10,000 years ago and Naif has been consistent in their interference ever since. No other multidimensional being has stepped in and done anything about it. All I can do is talk to Naif but they always accuse me of being lazy and not wanting what sometimes becomes more work for me. There is a little bit of a disconnect between myself and Naif and I wish they would understand that.

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I probably seem well adjusted for someone who has been privy to every death ever to have happened in human history. I probably am because I don’t know anything else. Some humans might suggest this is some sort of punishment for something I may have done in a previous beingness or life, but that it seems awfully unfair without the context of knowing why or what I am doing or have done.

Naif and I have been present for our fair share of births and deaths that take place in the same time and physical space. While I am there giving advice, suggestion, or command depending on how you look at it, Naif is there to simply record and place a dimensional marker so that I can be beckoned when my turn for work is up for that human. Seeing what Naif does compared to my tasks seems a bit easier and positive to do but I know I’m biased.

While there is indeed ease and positivity in bringing birth, I have seen how relieving death has been for many. Sure, they’re not all the best, but comparatively to birth I’d say they’re about the same. Both are a part of the life cycle, both are huge events for the family and friends of the birthed or dying, both cause tears, and both are transitional. Maybe neither is actually a big deal, but merely scary for humans because they don’t understand what is actually going on. I wish I knew, but maybe I’ll pass through that brightness once humans are over with, too.

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I haven’t thought to ask Naif what they want out of this existence, but I do know they’re much more intent on figuring things out actively and not just waiting like I am more inclined to do. I guess trying to find things out is OK, but sometimes Naif pushes from figuring out what is, to figuring out what ought to be; and after eons with no solid ideas on what is going on, much less what ought to be going on, Naif ought to stick with what is able to be understood. We have to deal life and death to folks, that’s enough of a task to deal with without adding more.

Sometimes I wish we were like our animal counterparts. They have their languages too, to be sure, but their languages are stuck in the present now and hardly can be used in the way that humans use their technology and written languages to attempt, and quite often succeed in, manipulating the future. Besides humans, what other species have such massive amounts of ego that causes them to be so dramatic and scared of birth and death? It’s a known, expected part of the life cycle, and stressing about something you can hardly change and only slightly affect the timing of seems much ado about nothing, or something. As modern humans would say, my animal coworkers “have it made,” in that their charges are not plagued by the sort of existential anxiety humans seem enmeshed in. They seem to be much better allies to their respective species.

It is so refreshing seeing my dog counterpart there when a human and their best friend dog go together (that is, when it’s an accident and not an act of conscious violence). A few days ago, I was there with the Grim Woofer after a human and a dog found a steep cliff together without notice and went out quickly and next to each other. Me and Woofer got there, led and said our pieces and the pair found their way into the brightness, still together. Wherever that is, I hope they can stick together on the other side. It obviously happens a lot less with cats, with their independence but more importantly with their nine lives but that’s a story for another time.

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I don’t know how big, small, complex, or simple life has to be to have birth and death helpers here in the 777th Dimension, but I’ve come to accept I don’t know and probably won’t, so I just assume all life does. Every being experiences something and that’s enough to show some consideration to all, at the least the intent to not harm. From ants, to trees, to gnats, to bees, to bats, to fleas, to rubella, to monkeys, to gorillas, to giraffes, to arugula, to dugong calves, to kangaroos, to unknown alien beings in galaxies, dimensions, and universi far far away, all life has a story of experience that is definingly different from all other beings, no matter the situation. This seems sacred enough to go along with and Naif will hopefully see this soon.

I expect Naif to read this and respond in kind to how they see and experience things, as everyone should. Hopefully, they give an explanation as to why they believe this is the correct course of action right now. We are here to deal with the births and deaths that happen in the present reality, not the possible or even plausible future. Like humans, we do not have any knowledge or experience with a higher power. We only know that humans are born and that humans die; and when those things happen, we do our respective tasks.

It seems easy to say we would know how different the present ought to have been if certain things happened in the past. Using that logic, it may seem easy to know what will happen in the future if we do certain things now in the present, but this is a futile thought pattern. With the existence of the multiverse and everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in all of the infinite universi, it is ignorant to assume you know how and what will happen in this ONE universe, even if you are the bringer of birth or death with the experience of the 4 human dimensions plus the 777th. But technology certainly gives the illusion of being in control, and it is exceedingly difficult, if not downright impossible, to overcome your own perception of reality.

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I hope this short finds you well and you are less inclined to fear me and understand I am merely here to do what I am supposedly tasked to do. I do not have a death wish for anyone besides for myself, so that I may one day pass on through the brightness I am denied thus far.

R.I.P.

-Grim