December 1, 2002

                One of the most intriguing ideas presented by Alan Watts in The Book is the idea that we, as humans, especially as those of the Western variety—strain ourselves in our everyday existences in order to achieve some sort of goal: we bend over backwards each day of our lives in order to supposedly achieve a better situation in the future, locked in a never-ending cycle of continuous attempts to gain. Watts points out the ultimate uselessness of this sort of life, because all life will eventually end in death. Maude of Harold and Maude understands that death is a natural occurrence, and tries to show Harold that death is not something to be feared. Maude shows Harold how to live, and in dying, allows him to do so.

                Watts addresses the grave fear that most Western people have of death—as a punishment, not as a natural part of life. “More usual, today, is the fear that death will take us into everlasting nothingness… No more friends, no more sunlight and birdsong, no more love or laughter, no more ocean and stars—only darkness without end” (36). Harold holds this view of death, and he is afraid of death. He is unhappy in life, but mocks death in hopes that he will somehow be able to overcome it.

                Maude, however, loves life, and accepts that her life will fade as naturally as the sunflowers she adores. Maude has seen death and been close to it in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, and can show Harold that death isn’t worth being consumed by; that life is really all that matters. “[Flowers] grow, bloom, fade, die, and change into something else” (Maude), just like humans. Maude stresses the importance of knowing that death will come naturally, “acting as a gentle reminder – here today, gone tomorrow” (Maude). She teaches Harold not to fear death, because “what we see as death, empty space, or nothingness is only the trough between the crests of this endlessly waving ocean. It is all part of the illusion that there should be something to be gained in the future, and that there is an urgent necessity to go on and on until we get it” (Watts 130). Life is what is important. So many people don’t enjoy life; they simply scramble about trying to win the prize at the end, not realizing that the prize will always be death, and soon enough their lives have been wasted, because there are no more chances to discover. Watts and Maude both teach that we have everything we need in the present, so we need to live for living, not for going somewhere in the future.

                Watts writes what Maude realizes: that we can’t just savor the beauty of the last spring rain, the last “sun sinking behind a flower-clad hill” (Watts 34), because we won’t be able to take it with us into death, into nothingness. Instead, we need to learn to savor the first so we know to savor and appreciate all of life’s beautiful moments while we are alive, and this is what Maude does and ultimately teaches Harold. Death is nothingness, and no matter what we have in life, we all will be the same in death. Working too hard or “backing away from life” (Maude) is pointless because we can’t win anything. All we can do is play the game: enjoy life, and absorb its beauty now, in the present.

                Maude’s vitality stems from her ability to find “what gives [her] that special satisfaction” (Maude) in her life. She shows Harold that it really is the way he lives his life that matters, not that he will die. Maude can savor each moment of her life because she is well aware that it could be her last. She teaches Harold to live that life full of purpose, the life Watts identifies as full of “conscious attention… [seeing] the whole for its parts” (156). “’Greet dawn with a breath of fire,’” says Maude as she slowly breathes life into Harold.  “Try something new each day; we’re given life to find it out. Life doesn’t last forever,” she says to Harold, begging him to join the “cosmic dance.”

                Maude’s death is what finally allows Harold to live. By dying, she shows him that all she has told him is true, that it is the life that matters, not the death. “All life lives by dying,” and by Maude dying, Harold can live. Maude’s legacy to Harold is her soul, the knowledge that life is for living. She passes on to Harold the secret to life: playing with it, teaching him to “reach out, take a jump, get hurt, even; play as well as [he] can.” It doesn’t matter to them what other people think, because they ultimately realize that “everyone has a right to make an ass out of themselves… you can’t let the world judge you too much.” Maude shows Harold that he can’t truly make an ass out of himself if what he is doing is making him happy, for the only one who can make that judgment is himself—the most important thing for Harold is to follow his soul and find that which “gives [him] that special satisfaction” (Maude). Maude finally brings Harold to make music and sing with her, to “get what [he] want[s] if [he] want[s] it / because [he] can get anything” (Cat Stevens), and together they spin in a field of happiness.

                To Maude, birth is just as beautiful as death, and she thinks that both should be celebrated the same because both are of the same importance to a life: “burials and births linked to each… the great cycle of life” (Maude). She goes to funerals to celebrate death as a phenomenon as vital to life as birth. When Maude dies, Harold can live, because Maude has shown him not to be afraid of death. Once he knows he can be happy, as he is with Maude, he can realize he is capable of happiness, and Maude has done all she can for him, telling him that it is good he loves her, because now he can “’go, and love some more.’” Maude brings Harold out of his fear of life and death and into a place where he can appreciate life and savor its moments, and “[live] life as a game… in the spirit of play rather than work” (Watts 135), as she teaches him that to be happy one does not need an “infinite future” (Watts 137)—just moments alive with “breath[s] of fire.”