To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to the soul.

Whatever condition we are in, we must always do what we want to do, and if we want to go on a journey, then we must do so and not worry about our condition, even if it's the worst possible condition, because, if it is, we're finished anyway, whether we go on the journey or not, and it's better to die having made the journey we're been longing for than to be stifled by our longing.

In reality, we are all travelers - even explorers of mortality.

The much greater problem in avian flu compared to SARS is the high mortality, in particular the high mortality amongst children. The family will have dropped off their child and the next time they see him, he will be dying -- can you imagine the effect that will have on staff morale in your unit?

The much greater problem in avian flu compared to SARS is the high mortality, in particular the high mortality amongst children. The family will have dropped off their child and the next time they see him, he will be dying — can you imagine the effect that will have on staff morale in your unit?

We know summer is the height of of being alive. We don't believe in God or the prospect of an afterlife mostly, so we know that we're only given eighty summers or so per lifetime, and each one has to be better then the last, has to encompass a trip to that arts center up at Bard, a seemingly mellow game of badminton over at some yahoo's Vermont cottage, and a cool, wet, slightly dangerous kayak trip down an unforgiving river. Otherwise, how would you know that you have lived your summertime best? What is you missed out on some morsel of shaded nirvana?