[Al Swearengen]

Just a tragedy. Only thing thats certain about this earthly life is that sooner or later it ends. I'll confess to being more or less obsessed with death since my father's passing back in 2000. Since then, I doubt if a single day has gone by that the subject didn't cross my mind. I've always found it the very height of cruelty that we're aware of our own mortality...how fair is that? But I know exactly what my dad would've said about it...he'd have said "who the hell ever said life was fair?", to which I would've replied "I can live with the unfairness of living, its the dying part I object to." Since we all have to die some day wouldn't it have been far kinder to not know it? Would any of us trade our sentience for that blissful ignorance? There are times when I think I would. Scant comfort can be found in the understanding that death is part of life. Thats why we have religion...because nobody wants to believe that this is all there is...that we get one shot at it, and then...oblivion...the cessation of existence. Fortunately for us, creation (Genesis) itself is proof of the existence of God, and if He exists, then ipso facto there really IS hope. Hope that there is a hereafter, where we'll be reunited with our loved ones, never to experience death again. That was His promise... and if anyone's word is worth a damn, it has to be His. If there is any solace for the living, for the survivors, this is where it will be found.