Allison Wall

After David Lynch passed, my social media flooded with tributes, memories, and stories about his art and his spirit. The same sentiment I saw when greats like Ursula K. LeGuin and David Bowie passed: Why do we lose these artists right when it seems like we need them the most?

I scrolled social media, hearing David’s voice, seeing his work, taking in his wisdom. The collective remembering and honoring was very powerful. I don’t think we’ve lost David Lynch. He hasn’t gone anywhere. His body died, but who he is, what he is, is still here.

I’ve yet to come across someone who could articulate the concept of the unified field or the collective unconscious so clearly as David.

I think, what happened, and what I witnessed, am witnessing, is this.

As we learned about David Lynch’s passing, we remembered him. We remembered the effect he’s had on us, and that his work will continue to have. We remembered the things about his presence that speak to us. And in that remembering, sparks of his energy wakened in each of us. We hold them. We hold him.

Who will be David Lynch now?

I think we all will.

He’s dispersed, now, among us. It’s up to us to nurture those things we find important and hold dear that are connected to David.

For me, that means prioritizing the work, as he called it. Focusing with intensity. Regular idea fishing. Remembering to take breaks and enjoy life. Being as particularly and unapologetically myself as possible. Loving what I love. Refusing to explain. More mystery. More dreaming. More consciousness. More art.

That’s what he would have wanted, I think.