This is the secret to life.
David Foster Wallace walked out to his patio, bound his own hands with duct tape, and hung himself with his belt. The secret to life was literally the very last thing in the world he had. These are just coping strategies.
..to emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on Heaven is to create hell. In their desperate longing to transcend the disorderliness, friction, and unpredictability that pesters life; in their desire for a fresh start in a tidy habitat, germ-free and secured by angels, religious multitudes are gambling the only life they may ever have on a dark horse in a race that has no finish line.
Tom Robbins (Skinny Legs and All)
Current status. I am the canary.
I try to avoid blogging about my personal and professional life. This small large triumph lives in the hazy space between the two, so I can’t give details. All I’m saying is this:
Revenge is motherfucking sweet.
Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart
-Alicia Keys
The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that they’re, for the most part, lifetime resolutions. It’s usually something you’re enacting for more than just one year. Call Mom & Dad more often, lose weight, quit smoking, etc. And I don’t know if grand vows at the end of the binging season are the best way to successfully enact long-term lifestyle changes.
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.
While killing yourself after a long and fruitful creative life can certainly do wonders to extend your legacy, it also invalidates any potentially cool shit you might have said about living life.
Why?
HST suffered many painful and chronic medical conditions near the end of his life, so he swallowed a .45 and pulled the trigger. Life wasn’t what it once was. How is that incompatible with his earlier statements?
I also plan to exercise my right to die once my quality of life gives the inevitable diminishing returns*. How does that invalidate my beliefs about living?
*Some of these new proto-models are promising. Hopefully, by the time I’ll need one in 50+ years we’ll have something that’s been tested, marketed and branded.
