Ponderings and Wanderings

I finished plowing through Pascal's Penseés.

It's not really a book, more a collection of notes for a book.

As such, it's a bit like a trip inside his agitated mind.

He greatly fears death, and sees worldly people as constantly seeking to distract themselves from the inevitability of death.

But it kept occurring to me that his own obsession - trying to justify his religious beliefs - was itself a make-work distraction from the real business of living.

I do not say that life is brief.

According to my own belief,
it's fairly long, but has an end,
and it's a gift to comprehend
that this is so, since we can act
in recognition of this fact,
by living while we have the chance.

So we step forward and dance.