If everybody did not die the earth would be all covered over and I, I as I, could not have come to be all covered over and I, as I, could not have come to be and try as much as I can try not to be I, nevertheless, I would mind that so much as anything, so then why not die, and yet and again not a thing, not a thing to be liking, not a thing.
This quotation from Gertrude Stein appears in Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely on page 11. My interpretation of this passage is that Stein is encouraging herself and her readers to give into the natural cycle of life; to surrender to death willingly. She “could not have come to be and try as much as I can try not to be”, meaning that if she were not to die, she would have no reason to live. She would have no reason to try to make some sense of the meaning of life and her purpose. And so, she resolves that to become “no longer a thing” and to accept death would be a better option. I believe what she means to say by this is that so many people fear and anticipate death far too much, trying to halt the natural cycle of life. In the process, these people miss out on living life in the moment and experiencing what’s right in front of them to the fullest. Instead of surrendering to what is out of their control, they find themselves unhappy trying to prevent the inevitable. This quotation also has a level of surrendering to the self; “I can try not be I, nevertheless, I would mind that so much as anything”. Stein encourages her readers to surrender to being human; we can try all we want to prevent what is out of our control (the Natural world and its cycle), but that would be just as painful as the way we view death now. Instead, she encourages her audience to simply accept that we are only human and we can only do so much. We are not perfect and we can’t be more than just an imperfect human, so accepting that identity is important to accepting the inevitability of death.
I agree with your sentiment that Stein’s quotation is about accepting the inevitability of death as well as embracing the natural cycle of the world. In the first part of sentence I think that Stein may also be referring to the fact that if people never died then the world would be an entirely different place. I think further that Stein is saying that if the world were a different place then she would not be the person that she is. When she refers to herself as “I as I” she may be commenting on the fact that who she is now is changeable depending on the world surrounding her.