In a flash of thunder and lightning rolling from
darkened clouds, some great and fearful entity descends from blood-red
skies.? In a voice likened unto the institute of life and death together
bundled into a package and released upon the atmosphere, this fearful,
wonderful being makes you this offer:? “I can tell you the exact time of
your death, and even the reason for your death if you so choose.? Or you
may remain in willful ignorance for the remainder of your days.? Choose
mortal.”

??????????? This brings up an interesting
situation.? The very offer implies that your death is predetermined and
that you have no choice in the matter.? Some may see this as a bad
thing.? But consider: if you choose to know the time of your death, and
the being says, for instance, that you will die at age fifty-six of a
heart attack, which indicates that you are, for all intents and
purposes, immortal up until your fifty-sixth birthday.? You could jump
out of planes and race your car around at break-neck speeds, and you
won’t kill yourself.? Of course, you could injure yourself severely, and
go in for a life of intense pain and physical therapy, possibly
paralysis, so it may not be the greatest of consolation prizes, but it
is something.

??????????? Of course, the fact that such an offer
would be made to you is probably an indication that your death is
imminent, yea, perhaps even upon you.? I can imagine you saying, “Yeah,
okay, tell me when I’m going to die.”

The answer will probably be, “Right now.” And then,
BAM you’re dead.

??????????? Even if that isn’t the case, I don’t
see how this entity, what ?ere it be, has done you any favors by making
you this offer? save for timely funeral arrangements.? Because if you
choose to know the day of your death, you are made keenly aware of your
own mortality and given a hopeless sense of fatalism knowing that
nothing can prevent your demise.? If you choose not to know, you are
left with the life-long paranoia that you could have known when and how
you would die, and never know if it would be possible to prevent said
death.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2003 at 9:39 am and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.