The Carpe Diem Diaries: Six Feet Under

Monday, August 18

Six Feet Under

At the finale of my favorite TV show ever, HBO's Six Feet Under, I felt sad, like I had lost some good friends. You know, like the melancholy feeling you get when you finish a great book. I've never been so attached to TV characters, but they all had so many layers, and they were so flawed and human. I couldn't help but identify with them all.

Here is my very favorite scene. It comes from Season 1, Episode 13 when a client asks Nate why people have to die and he thoughtfully explains that it is "to make life important."

TRACY sits at a table. She's been crying a long time. NATE sits beside her.

Nate: May I have a seat?

Tracy: (crying) My aunt Lillian was the only person who ever really loved me. My parents didn't. My husband certainly didn't. And now she's dead. Her husband died, and her daughter died too, in a car crash on her 17th birthday. But Aunt Lillian just went on. She raised Welsh Corgies, and she took up water colors, and she loved me, and now she's dead! I've never felt this alone in the world, and I'm used to feeling alone. I know what that's like, and now I find out that there's this whole new level. (she stares at NATE and NATE stares back, encouraging her to go on) Why do people have to die?

There's a long pause. Then...

Nate: To make life important. None of us know how long we've got, which is why we have to make each day matter, and it sounds like your aunt Lillian did exactly that.

Tracy: Yes, she did.

Nate: Then you can be happy for her-- for a life well-lived. That's the most any of us can hope for. (tears up as well)

I visited the Six Feet Under house yesterday and it was like my hajj to Mecca, you know? It made me want to re-watch the entire series again.