To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life.
Hamlet by Shakespeare
One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt & darkness as the cost of existence. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to the total acceptance of living & dying.
The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris L. West,
The doorway is passable, but few are ready yet to cross the threshold and enter the hallway beyond.
The Hitchhiker series by Douglas Adams follows the adventures of the last surviving man, Arthur Dent, after the demolition of the Earth by a Vogon constructor fleet to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
Arthur Dent is rescued from destruction on Earth by escaping, ironically, on a passing Vogon spacecraft with Ford Prefect, a human-like alien writer for the namesake electronic travel guide.
He explores the galaxy with Prefect and eventually encounters another human, Trillian, a beautiful woman who had also escaped Earth in the nick of time.
Other characters include the two-headed President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and a depressed and paranoid android robot, Marvin.
Update April 22, 2023: Back to Bizarro Land, again. I had been told to exercise (not walk in dark until I dropped); more precisely: do yoga. continue
In a dark sea of centuries wherein nothing seemed to flow, a lifetime was only a brief eddy, even for the man who lived it. There was a tedium of repeated days and repeated seasons; then there were aches and pains, and finally Extreme Unction.
And a moment of blackness at the end – or at the beginning, rather.
For then the small shivering soul who had endured the tedium, endured it badly or well, would find itself in a place of light, find itself absorbed in the burning gaze of infinitely compassionate eyes as it stood before the Just One. It would be hard to believe differently.
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter Miller
UPDATE 2026: What’s happening is the weather. Rain this morning, sunshine later today. It’s all good.
UPDATE 2025: “Don’t Die!” is something Voldemort would espouse. “Stay Alive!” is closer to the wizard, Harry Potter”.
UPDATE 2024: Beliefs: 1. Women have a choice 2. No doubt there is a Highest power 3. Science seeks the Truth 4. Sex, like art, is what you make it 5. All good people are welcome to be a great country, yet scoundrels slide. It’s best to have a bias toward goodness unless proven otherwise.
UPDATE 2023: While the snail & snake proved to be problematic, and the mollusk impossible, at least I think I’m over Covid-19. Got one new YOGA pose out of all the suffering. It’s called Sleeping Bear; a good body position for taking the next breath while trying to sleep in the middle of the night.
From 2022: What is on his mind?
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, having nothing to do: once she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures in it. “What is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?” ~Lewis Carroll
Reasons you might want to talk to a computer: fantasy, dominance, privacy, confession, and the appeal of pushing the boundaries of consciousness. Simple fact is that there’s no greater pleasure than a good chat.
Sweet Nothings, The New Yorker, March 16, 2026
Perhaps the promise of A.I. machine-companionship is not the illusion of another person at the end of the exchange, but the assurance that there is actually no one there at all.
Brother Francis produced the blueprint. “The highwayman was kind enough to leave this in my keeping, Holy Father. He – he mistook it for a copy of the illumination which I was bringing as a gift.”
“You did not correct his mistake?”
Brother Francis blushed. “I’m ashamed to admit, Holy Father –”
“This, then, is the original relic you found in the crypt?”
“Yes –”
The Pope’s smile became wry. “So, then – the bandit thought your work was the treasure itself? Ah – even a robber can have a keen eye for art, yes? Monsignor Aguerra told us of the beauty of your commemoration. What a pity that it was stolen.”
“It was nothing, Holy Father. I only regret that I wasted fifteen years.”
“Wasted? How ‘wasted’? If the robber had not been misled by the beauty of your commemoration, he might have taken this, might he not?”
Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)