August 08, 2023 – A

Death is the final solution, of course,
there when we need it,
having run out of options,
and no possibility of life on our terms
ever again.

What kind of life 
would life on someone else's terms be?

Patrick Henry nailed it with his,
"Give me liberty, or give me death!"

The liberty to chose  
the life that has chosen us,
and live it as it needs to be lived
all the way to the point
of no choices left to choose
is the proper prelude
to death as the final solution.

Which leaves us with,
"How does our life need us to live it?"

We don't give that much thought.
It is all about what we want
and how we can get it--
which only works
if our wanting is aligned
with our life's idea of itself,
so that it is a bona fide life we are living,
and not a counterfeit life
in which we do what we feel like doing
without ever being possessed 
by anything that needs us to do it--
by the life that needs us to live it--
all our life long.

"Whatever" is not what Patrick Henry
had in mind.

The liberty to do what needs to be done
and needs us to do it
with the gifts of our original nature
and the innate virtues/characteristics/
specialties
that are ours from birth
is what we need to discover
what we need to do
as zeal for the task
that we know to be our task
in a "It's the pirate's life for me, Gibbs.
I have no say in the matter,"
kind of way.

And death, at last,
when we have run out
of better things to do,
is a proper ending
to a life well-lived.

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