As can be seen by
Sam Wormley's taste in poetry,
he seems to be:
"Tired of living,
and fear'd of dying"
but like the "Old Man River"
he just keeps "rolling along".
Sam's favorite Christmas poem is about
a man contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve,
and recently he posted a "hacked" Dylan Thomas poem
suggesting that old men like me
feared death and "Raged"
"Because their words had forked no lightning"
Considering that Sam seems
to fear death, and "rages" about life,
and projects these feelings onto others,
I thought that I would post a poem
that expresses my view on life and death.
"So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
From Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
I'll even expand on Thanatopsis
and say that one should
"So live, that <before> thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
<that you don't bring one neuron into conflict with other neurons>.
The bottom line Sam, is
that as neither General Relativity nor religion
will give you the power to transcend time and space,
enjoy life while you are here,
and don't compromise your integrity,
which is based on truth, values, and consistently,
as each compromise brings you into conflict with yourself.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin
if death is a long sleep,
what could be better than that,
and if on the other hand,
you are rewarded or punished by how you live this life,
hedge your bets, and lead the good life.
And what is the "good life"?
That is for me and Ben Franklin to know,
and you to figure out.
--
Tom Potter
*** Time Magazine Person of the Year 2006 ***
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