Windrum's Never Say Die Rap™

Absurdity can serve serenity.

It really is absurd, isn’t it? Most of us say that we want to die in peace. Yet millions of Americans die annually, and more worldwide, under distinctly non-peaceful circumstances. Multiply each non-peaceful demise by the number of surviving family members who become hauntingly impacted and wonder about how much unnecessary pain is associated with how we die today in the US and across the industrialized world. It really is absurd, isn’t it?

I have no idea when and how the idea of an end of life rap arose for me. The timeframe was fall 2012 while developing Windrum’s Matrix of Dying Terms. An end of life rap is an absurd thing to bring forth—and that’s the point. That point, the absurdity, rests within a larger point: that we will all be better served when we can engage in end of life conversations without feeling like we have to whisper or be somber. Otherwise, what are our chances of ending our lives under serene conditions if we can’t loosen up when learning about and coming to grips with the many obstacles to getting there? I’m not suggesting that all this is a cakewalk, but rather that when we become aware and empowered we feel better than when we’re naive and disempowered. Perhaps ironically, when we gain traction over heavy issues we get a bit lighter of heart…a bit more sure, to the extent we can be sure, regarding end of life issues. It’s better than the alternative.

The Rap helps loosen things up as it makes a ton of important points in a compact, succinct, unusual manner. Some people love it. Some people can’t handle it. I offer an “unplugged” poetic version, too. And a hybrid.

Here you can listen to the rap’s studio recording. To watch the rap, several iterations appear on video on this site’s Speaking page. There, see its flawed premier performance within a 5 minute Ignite Denver talk of November 2012 (a rapid fire talk format with auto-advancing slides, given to a  20- to 30-something audience half in a party mood; Rap from 1:20—3:15, performed up-tempo to fit within 8 slides’ time); and a polished performance at TEDxFoCo May 2013, Rap from 8:00–10:30.

Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap

Want to die at peace got to die in peace
All of one piece say “pretty please”
Want to go in grace with a neutral face
We’re done this race—no, got to stay in place
Beyond ready to depart
Jump jack your bones and shock your heart
When you’re pickin pickin at the air
No bro ma’am you ain’t goin nowhere

There’s an app for that
Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap

Independent thinker, no one’s rube
Shove in 1 2 3 4 5 tubes
With CDiff, MRSA, gurgle gurgle
And all we want to do is cuddle and snuggle

There’s no app for that
Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap

And: in the annals of stupidity
death panels twist our talkin free
Can’t touch the sky, see or be seen
Ain’t livin ain’t dyin don’t mean to be mean
When death comes knockin my clock tic tockin
Hey everybody: deus ex machina?*

Rap about that
Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap

Now it ain’t just medicine in our way
If you don’t talk, you don’t get no say
Call 911 when it’s time to pass
blockin our own path pain in our own ass

Take a number for that
Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap

Steve Price RN sings dyin is dyin**
his songs are cool; Steve ain’t lyin
Chart your glidepath while there’s time
to die at peace with minimal cryin
Study up, make some sense
of 21st century impediments
Time to grow up before we get old
There’s more to dying than we’ve been told
Wishing won’t help us turn the page
So sixteen new terms to engage

I have a matrix*** for that
Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap
Windrum’s Never Say Die Rap

* Deus ex machina: see this Wikipedia explanation
** Steve Price, Awake CD (it’s wonderful, poignantly happy—you’ll bop around the house to it)
*** Windrum’s Matrix of Dying Terms™

© 2012 Bart Windrum, Axiom Action LLC, and Bartholomewsic
Danger Zone loop by DJ Buzzword. Additional loop processing and orchestration by Bartholomewsic.