Alex,

I have been thinking further on the losses inherent in impiety. Do you ever lament that certain things were not sown into you as a child? Take the belief in the soul, the afterlife, and deity. It seems, at random, the gardener gently waters some by those beliefs to full bloom while others are condemned to remain small seeds, unsure and afraid of even the soil that has borne them. You see, how much anxiety would have been spared me were I always to have attended church?

With the philosophical pain that has charged my veins, I might pridefully conjure up a comparison to Socrates’ allegory. But we must recall that only the enslaved claim exaltation. I won’t deny though, be it my shackles or the blinding light, much of life has felt an aching purgatory…nihilism creeping over the horizon some mornings instead of our lofty sun.

Still, the sun also rises beyond paradise. When you lose a friend and mentor of such magnitude that you must get down on your knees and say a prayer, you break through a set of definite chains…those of self-pity….and feel the grace of the gardener.

Always cherish your friends and family.

Regards,

Liber