Intellectually, we understand that we are all destined to die.  Oddly, there is no greater surprise in life than the fact that death is part of the collective bargain. We want to believe that things will get better, nobody will die on our watch or that our happiness, insurance policies or relationships won’t get canceled. 

But there are no guarantees.

Whether it is after a long illness or by virtue of a crime or freak accident, death knocks on everybody’s door eventually.  It takes the wind out of our sails and causes us to divert, re-evaluate and reflect. 

And then, amazingly, we move on.

There’s a whole lot of speculation about the future of Open Salon or its impending funeral.  If your writing is important to you and you haven’t started yet, you might want to start the embalming process.  Save your work before it becomes part of history.  You know, that whole sooner rather than later philosophy.

I have no crystal ball, but I suspect that all those beautiful sentences, coffee-spewing-I-wish-I had-thought-of-this funny posts, intelligent observations, gorgeous stanzas of poetry and heartbreaking paragraphs are at high risk of foreclosure.

Even if OS is not your primary residence, we are all suddenly facing potential homelessness. 

As the possibility of our demise continues to be discussed, I can’t help but notice how so many are suddenly scrambling for life preservers, exchanging emails and wondering if we will ever see each other again when and if we find ourselves in a new world.

Suddenly, death calls from the wings.  The race is on to prove that not only we will continue to exist, but that we somehow existed. 

Some people have already found their way across the ocean and set up house elsewhere.  It’s called survival of the fittest.

Until now, many have taken for granted that OS would be a vacation home that would be there night and day, whenever we wanted or needed it.  It was like a promising lover, eager to accept all the words we carried with us like luggage each time we came back for a visit.  Log in, write, hit “publish” and show the world you’ve arrived.  Again.

Chances are the big old cyber plug will get pulled on Open Salon while we’re eating dinner, working at the office or (yikes) living life.  There are no guarantees.

This is where life gets interesting.

Go read your last post and then look at your most recent set of comments on the left hand side of your page.  Are these the footprints you want to leave behind?  Do the comments and your last post reflect who you are?

OS is a lot like life.  It’s a parallel universe and an experiment in temporary happiness.  It’s laced with challenges, injustice, humor, sorrow, and insanity.  Tomorrow, it could all change or disappear. 

As with life, your last words are the ones that people will try to remember.

There’s a cautionary tale or a lesson in here, I’m sure.  I don’t profess to know what it is, but I’d like to make an observation. 

Many have said that OS is like high school.  In many ways, they’re right.  We have documented it on a daily basis and watched it play out in writing.  It is filled with countless pages of our collective history.

We may be forced to graduate from this environment and move on.  People here will be remembered for what they were and how they behaved, long after high school and the funeral are over.  The images and actions of our classmates will be frozen in memory and time.  Rarely will we have the opportunity to really get to know people, learn what became of them or who they really are.  

We are in many ways, figments of our own imagination.

You may see yourself or others one way now and with time, see this whole movie from a different perspective.  Much can be learned from a past we created together. We all played a part.

Nobody knows for sure how long OS might stay alive.  For now, I’m going to keep an eye on the yearbook.  On any given day, our words may be the very last, regardless of whether they are spoken or put in writing.  

They are what will be remembered long after OS is dead and buried.

We are all on life-support.