David Lynch was more than just a man.
That much I can say for all of us. For, if he were only a man, why would we feel so close to him or love him so dearly without having met him truly in person on a day-to-day basis?
What was he? I hate to mention him in the past tense. It is still unreal to me, as it is to all of us, that a man so brilliant and mysterious and strange and delicate could perish at a time of sadness and destruction.
Kyle MacLachlan has spoken more than anyone after his dear friend’s passing, and we all understood and have felt everything he said he had cherished and experienced with the man. Even through Sherilyn Fenn’s words to her Instagram post, ‘I feel... sad,’ we all know exactly what she’s feeling on a highly personal level. The beauty is that we all feel exactly the same as those who knew him and loved him in person.
To all of us, David was extraordinary and a man who spoke little of his own understanding of the world he’d create through his art, his films and shows, and his music. He saw things we wish we could see and touch. He knew things that we wish we could know, and he would never tell. He could describe something so beautiful to us that we, ourselves, would’ve never seen in such a level of significant beauty and awe as he did himself. And with his own hands, he could create something so strange and marvelous at the same time, that we couldn’t help but wonder how he could envision such things and manage to recreate them with his own genius and talent.
We can’t explain who he was or what he’s done in a way that would suit him entirely down to the very syllable. We try hard to find the words, and use our feelings to give rise to such words, but... even then we don’t know how to describe our own feelings toward the man. Besides, each of us have our own feelings, different from the other, or similar, and grieve his passing differently or similarly just the same.
But as for myself... I did not cry after hearing the news of his sudden passing. In all honesty I say I was smiling with joy. I felt he was no longer in pain and suffering, that he was free. Free from the bounds of his human flesh that we saw and embraced. While most of everyone thought he was gone and that it was the end, I felt he had never left. That his spirit still lives and is watching us, smiling at us, seeing in our hearts and souls how much we loved him and everything that was to him. And I smiled with such relief to know he was gone of the suffering to live in a realm of no suffering and filled with peaceful bliss.
I can think of him and smile just the same. How warm he feels in the air. How sweet, how light, how dreamy he feels. It’s unreal, even though, he had once said for us all to ‘Get real’. It’s hard not to laugh at such reference, because the man was brilliant with his words.
Just now, I noticed I’ve said before in this article that David was more than a man. And on an occasion in this same article, I refer to him as a man or the man. I think this is the time I emphasize his ‘presence’ to all of us. But fair warning, I know not all of us are religious or have any interest or tolerance to such aspects of thought and faith, but we all know that there are many religious references to his works, so please, do bear with me with an open mind, for this is a dear thought of mine concerning David.
David is a biblical name. It is through David’s bloodline that Jesus Christ is born. And in the Bible, it is said that David was a strong shepherd, was a talent with music, was loyal to the Lord his God, and was a man who won the hearts of all who knew him. And he was God’s Chosen One to take over the throne of Israel after the decline of the nation’s first king, Saul.
Whenever I think of our David who passed, I can’t help but compare him to the David of the Biblical times, for they are similar in many aspects than one. He was a shepherd to his proteges, that included Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Sherilyn Fenn to name a few. He was a talent of music. He was loyal to his views of God and Heaven (as he did state: ‘The kingdom of heaven, God the Almighty merciful father, is that totality. It’s that level. It’s the almighty merciful father, and the divine mother, the kingdom of heaven, the absolute, divine being, bliss consciousness, creative intelligence.’). And, most of all, he was a man who won all the hearts who knew him and everyone, with the fullest of hearts, loved him.
It would seem as if he was Heaven’s Anointed One, the one who would rule the world through his art and talent, as well as his own individual spirit that is like no other. (I say is not was now because his spirit still remains in our world and should be stated as something still alive with us).
And the references of King Saul, who loved the biblical David, but then feared him because he knew that David was to take over his Throne and was the new Chosen One. I can’t help but think that Saul is a great depiction of Hollywood today.
Hollywood loved him, indeed, yet they feared his influence on the freedom of filmmaking as well as confronting the corruption of cinematic beauty and art. With that fear, they shut him down from working on his latest projects rejected, which include Snootworld and Unrecorded Night. We also know that our David had been fighting Hollywood during the filming of Twin Peaks: The Return, resenting the time scheduling, and not being able to go dreamy enough into his own craft... something that truly irked and devastated him to a point of heartbreak.
Sadly enough, our David couldn’t win in the end of his battles against Hollywood (and Netflix to be even more specific) to get his latest projects in the making. But we do know this: He still won against Hollywood itself.
He knew how to work on his own, to work in his own studio, and make things happen on his own terms and his own way. Nobody to control him or tell him what to do. He had freedom to his own immeasurable device, and he felt at peace with that. He still managed to beat the system by showing the world that he can build and do everything on his own and however he damn well pleased.
A spirit so loved and cherished, David’s death is no end to himself in totality. We feel him deep in all our hearts to the point there is no doubting his presence. I did say once that he was ‘in the air’, (funny how that puns to his show On the Air that came after the original Twin Peaks), but I also think he’s within us all. Like the Holy Spirit upon all humanity.
And how certain was our David to have that Lady in the Radiator sing ‘In heaven, everything is fine.’ in his feature film debut, Eraserhead, if had he not any sincere faith in peace and God whatsoever? And we cannot forget the angel in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, who gave Laura Palmer tears and laughter of peace and joy.
David Lynch is very much indeed alive as I write this article, as we all breathe, and as we all smile, laugh, play, work, and everything we do in our lives that David himself would find so beautiful to his eyes, heart, mind, and soul, as we find him and his works in the same light.
Through him, we have become more determined to become more curious about the world we live in, and ourselves as human beings. We learn to experiment with our many, many ideas. We thrive to understand, embrace, and absorb the dark and the strange and the mysterious. And of course, we learn that Hollywood will never treat the finest of any of us as great as they once did, as they did not respect him and his talent as they should have.
Long live the spirit of our David, we all pray. The David that could’ve indeed been the great equivalence of David in the Bible, lived a life full of dreams, and I believe now, that he is still dreaming today as he watches over us all, and loves us so tenderly as we did, and still do, for him. And his legacy will always be passed down from generation to generation, where he’ll always live on to watch and smile as life goes on.
