Accident Is As Much A Part Of

I'm Not Afraid," Rafi Said. "why Not?" "if I Die Tomorrow It Will Have Been Useless To Have Been Afraid Today.

Perhaps Passing Through The Gates Of Death Is Like Passing Quietly Through The Gate In A Pasture Fence. On The Other Side, You Keep Walking, Without The Need To Look Back. No Shock, No Drama, Just The Lifting Of A Plank Or Two In A Simple Wooden Gate In A Clearing. Neither Pain, Nor Floods Of Light, Nor Great Voices, But Just The Silent Crossing Of A Meadow.

I Made A Boy's Mistake, Common Enough, Of Thinking That Real Life Was Knowing Many Things And Many People, Living Dangerously In Faraway Places, Crossing The Sea, Or Starting A Power Company On The Columbia River, A Steamship Line In Bolivia.

I Have Seen Lonely People Of Advancing Age, Yet As Constant As Angels, Keeping Faith To Those They Loved Who Fell In Wars That Current Generations, Not Having Known Them, Cannot Even Forget. The Sight Of Them Moving Hesitantly Among The Tablets And Crosses Is Enough To Break Your Heart.

I Am Religious By Nature, I'm Not A Nihilist. I Don't Follow, I Don't Even Know What The Tenets Of Things Like Deconstructionism Are, And All Those Schools That Come Up And Their Way Of Looking At Things That People Strive To Incorporate Into What They Write. I Don't Even Know What They Are. Because I Sense From A Distance That I Don't Want To Know. And Therefore Even If I Had No Politics, Actual Politics, My Cultural Point Of View Is Hopelessly Out Of Date With The Modern Literary Sensibility. Which Is Nihilistic, And Ironic, Detached, Cool, And Cowardly.