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.'”

A year or so ago, Jim and I were deep into one of our far too infrequent telephone conversations when the topic of immortality came up. Not surprisingly we both agreed that fearing and hiding from Death is a doomed enterprise in quest of a poor excuse for immortality. Those who would Truly Live do so in full understanding that the fat lady sings for everyone, and as is said, a ship is safe in port but that’s not what ships are for.

Jim and I , and you Goode Reader if you’ve been paying attention, have had people in our lives, now long gone, but who you can feel watching intently every time you are called upon to do something they taught you, and who you would not dishonour by doing any less than exceeding their expectations. In this way is immortality achieved.

Immortality

By LFM

Life is not for living in the future nor the past,
For they are but parentheses containing all thou hast.
However far apart they lie will matter not a jot —
That tiny moment in between called “NOW” is all you’ve got.

Don’t build your life from might have beens nor forecasts dark and bleak,
The past is not for hiding from, the future not the meek,
The NOW is all you have and only YOU can set the bar,
So last your Life’s light shines upon’s the best of all you are.

I intend to live forever lads, or die in the attempt,
And saying that I make no claim my Life is Death exempt.
The NOW’s to seize to bursting with all reasons to rejoice
In Sons who read these words of mine and hear them in my voice.