Researching Death

I'm entirely open to its possibilities.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke

I fear it now, there's still so much I need to do. But I think eventually it will be a welcomed friend.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Progressive Discussions

The dark is unknown for a time.

Death is unknown to the living eternally. We fear that.

Why, I do not know.

Listening lately to some evangelically pompadoured bonehead talk about abortion and "when life begins," it sorta hit me that it never really does "begin." It just changes shape. Sperm and eggs aren't living? Of course they are. And the variant cells that morphed into those egg cells and sperm cells, they aren't living? Life doesn't "begin" really, it just changes shape—from living vegetables into my digestive system, which fuels my own cell production, including my ability generate living reproductive cells, and on and on.

So if it doesn't officially "begin" at conception or the third trimester or birth, then is it fair to say that it "ends" at death? I'm not talking spirit or soul here, but life.

Reminds me of a little ditty by Pete Seeger ... "If I should die before I wake, all my bones and sinew take / and put me in the compost pile to decompose me for a while / Worms, water, sun will have their way converting me to lumps of clay / My molecules will feel the trees and little fishes in the seas / When radishes and corn you munch, you may be having me for lunch / And then excrete me with a grin, chuckling there goes Jon again ..."

Cold War making. Really, I don't know why that was. Maybe the drills at school sending us out into the tiny concrete blocked hallways to contemplate annihilation. Sights and sounds of the Vietnam War on the news at dinnertime. I'm not afraid anymore but I still think that's the way the world ends. So many loose nukes.

Have you called to support H. Res 333 Impeach Cheney Today? call 202-224-3121 & ask for your Congress member by name

I think even when it's expected, it's a surprise.

I was blessed to be present at the moment of my father's death from cancer. Along with the birth of my son, it was one of the most sacred moments of my life.

is just one long competition against death. Even if you're extremely careful, taking steps to ensure you're healthy and safe from outright danger, death is still only a slight misjudgment behind the wheel or a Tootsie Roll away.

But death is inevitable, so that competition will eventually be lost. While I grudgingly accept that fact, I'm finding it harder and harder to accept the passage of time. I'm 47 years old, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how in the hell that happened. I must not have been paying attention, something I was warned numerous times about when I was a child. :(

sucks.

One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon