AUGUST 21
Death is the veil which those who live call life:
They sleep, and it is lifted.
—PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEYAt first this seems to demean the splendid experience of
being alive. Who could conceive of wonders beyond those
we know—the starlit sky, the fragrance of lilies, the wonder
of human love? We embrace the world in all its beauty and
delight (and its pain as well, for that is part of what being
human is), and when we lose a loved one, we mourn not
only for ourselves but on behalf of our loved one—to have
lost all this.
Yet people who have reported near-death experiences tell
us that they have lost all fear of death. Some of them say
they have almost been loath to return, because the glimpse
they saw of life beyond death was so much more glorious
than anything we know.
Who can know? Not we, bound as we are to the blessings
and troubles of being alive. But...suppose they are right?
And regardless of what we think of those stories, we have
the testimony of many religions to the promise of a life after
death which is marvelous beyond our imagining.
Life is an adventure whose terms I know. Death is an adventure,
too.