Large Fierce Mammal

These are fraught times strewn with fears; both the named and nameless. This is nothing new. As in other times past when the barbarians weren’t merely at the gates but dwelt among us, the thinness of the veneer called civilization offers little contest to genesis of a mindless rabble bent on the taking of advantage and the settling of scores, real and imagined.

In my article titled The Best of Yourself, published here as part of the 2016 edition of my annual A Long Winter’s Night series, I quoted my Esteemed Friend Master At Arms James Keating:

“Think of your death now. It is at arm’s length. It may tap you any moment, so really you have no time for crappy thoughts and moods. None of us have time for that. The only thing that counts is action, acting instead of talking.

“Our death is waiting and this very act we’re performing now may well be our last battle on earth. I call it a battle because it is a struggle. Most people move from act to act without any struggle or thought. A hunter, on the contrary, assesses every act; and since he has an intimate knowledge of his death, he proceeds judiciously, as if every act were his last battle. Only a fool would fail to notice the advantage a hunter has over his fellow men. A hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It’s only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself ….” ~ Master At Arms James A. Keating, Hermitage – The Power of Solitude

The Hunter Jim refers to is a being far transcending the cruelly murderous engine of mayhem that haunts the imaginings of the Disconnected, and of whom I concluded:

“You don’t get to pick when the fat lady sings, and so as with Jim’s hunter who, ‘… gives his last battle its due respect,’ start treating your every act as your last, so it can Truly be said of you that your last act on earth was the best of yourself.”

Now take those thoughts to heart as we conclude with Ascension —

“Two mountaineers find unforeseen difficulties to place a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top of the peak they are climbing.” IMDB

Told in a spirit of deadpan humour only people who have ever embarked on a task, damning the torpedoes in the face of the best efforts of Murphy’s Law will fully appreciate, to me, this is a story unanchored in any system of religious belief, notwithstanding the specific motivation of its two human characters. Let me know what you think.