Hóka-Héy – Today Is a Good Day to Die

This cry is attributed to Crazy Horse, one of the American Indian leaders at the Battle of the Greasy Grass (commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand), which took place on June 25 and 26, 1876.

The obvious interpretation of this declaration is that “today is a good day to die in battle,” but by looking a little beneath the surface we might find a more valuable insight.

I remember an often-repeated statement by my eighth grade science teacher, “Read yourself full, then write yourself empty.”  He was talking about studying science, but isn’t that what each of us does every single day?  We fill ourselves with information from outside our skin, then spin it back out, into the world, mingled with our own unique sensibility.

Caretakers working with hospice patients who are near death uniformly report that few regret what they have done in their lives, only what they have left undone: that two-week trip to Europe, perhaps a few “I’m sorry’s,” or one final, unsaid, “I love you.”

None of us know which will be our final day. It could very well be today. This is why I think we could, and should, compress our best selves into this very moment.

I have thought, said, and accomplished much in my more than seventy-five years of yesterdays.  My voice will not be heard in that luminous tomorrow, where eternity has no ears.  I can only write myself empty today.

Maybe Crazy Horse was more lucid than his name implies.  I think he shouted, “Today is a good day to live.”

Alan