"We will see you in our dreams."
Dream Weaver
In the wake of celebrated surrealist director David Lynch's death at the age of 78, NASA has joined the throngs of mourners celebrating the life of the "Mulholland Drive" and "Blue Velvet" auteur.
"Keep your eye on the donut," the space agency wrote in a post on X-formerly-Twitter, "and not on the hole."
That simultaneously mundane and profound statement, published in one of Lynch's transcendental meditation books, was accompanied by an image of a black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy that resembled the delicious fried dough pastry at the heart of so many scenes in "Twin Peaks."
Most of Lynch's work — save for his 1984 adaptation of "Dune" starring a young Kyle MacLachlan — took place on terra firma. Still, he encouraged everyone to "explore the otherworldly and the unknown," as NASA so aptly put it in its post.
"We will focus not on the loss, but on what we gained from the years we shared this planet with you," the space agency shared. "We will see you in our dreams."
Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.
In memory of David Lynch, we will continue to explore the otherworldly and the unknown. We will focus not on the loss, but on what we gained from the years we shared this planet with you. We will see you in our dreams. pic.twitter.com/PRZkYKkcsN
— NASA (@NASA) January 16, 2025
Goodbye for Now
The latter half of that tear-jerking homage is reminiscent of comments the "Twin Peaks" creator made in a rare 2023 interview with the BBC. Conducted after the passing of composer and longtime Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti the year prior, the interviewer noticed that the director kept referring to his old friend in the present tense — and the response was flooring.
"You have to keep Angelo alive," Lynch said. "I believe life is a continuum, and that no one really dies, they just drop their physical body and we'll all meet again, like the song says."
"It's sad but it's not devastating if you think like that," he continued. "Otherwise, I don't see how anybody could ever, once they see someone die, that they'd just disappear forever and that's what we're all bound to do."
"I'm sorry but it just doesn't make any sense," the lifelong transcendental meditation enthusiast said. "It's a continuum, and we're all going to be fine at the end of the story."
Viewed through that lens, Lynch is merely further along the continuum than the rest of us — and there's no doubt that those whose lives he touched will indeed be seeing him in their dreams.
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