I am reminded of my own inevitable mortality by this, as always, superb and quirky literary piece by Lewis Lapham entitled Memento Mori ; The Death of American Exceptionalism — and of Me .
It is a reminder that we do not live forever; and why should we should choose to want to?
Yes, this life brings to each of us a superb melodrama of emotional highs and lows , both wonderful and tragic moments, physical pain and ecstasy. But perhaps for me, it will not be a sad day when this feeble little ego; constructed upon nothing but fear and ignorance, departs this mortal coil.
But what is indeed sad and tragic, are those of us who continue to hurt our own and other species on this little planet we chance to be on, to inflate our little fragile make-believe egos.
New Antarctica 