I wonder if there is a hell. I wonder if it’s hot there. I wonder if there can be another cold day in hell. Most likely, either extreme for all of eternity would be hard to bare.

All of eternity – now there’s the catch. We can’t comprehend it. Must be like a mobius loop – there is no end. Time continually circles in on itself. Maybe we can’t comprehend this because we know that there is an end to our lives.

Today someone was talking with me about this – saying our lives here are of short duration – I think it was Bruce who, cleans books on Tuesdays – yes, it was. This got me to thinking – you know how much time you have left from the time you are a child. But there comes a point in time when you realize that you no longer have 30, 40, 50, 60 years left. Furthermore, time goes by faster with each passing year. Having (realistically) less than 20 years means you don’t have much time left.

And the time you do have? Most likely you’ll have some pressing health issues, and your friends will have pressing health issues, and whazoom; it’s what you talk about when you’re together. And, one day, health issue discussions are interesting.

There is also the matter of hearing about those who had their lives cut short, after having made some major accomplishment. You then really know what it’s like to be mortal.

I once asked a friend how come we don’t want to live forever? She thought about this for a minute and then said because life is a struggle. I have since pondered her observation. Yes, we have to find mates, reproduce, bring kids into the world, feed ourselves, and feed the kids. We also have to find work or not find work.

If, say, you don’t have children (and Pete and I do not), you have to care for yourself. Life then has no family related twists and turns. For instance, there are no phone calls from distraught individuals asking how you should go about glazing a turkey.

Around here, we talk about the day’s plans. I made it a rule not to talk about such things before we get up. So we talk about such things at the breakfast table. Sometimes I go first and sometimes Pete goes first. Sometimes we adhere to these plans and sometimes not. Some plans fail to materialize. Other plans take a lot of time to enact, leaving other plans sitting by the railroad tracks.

Right now, we are very focused on what will be the next phase of the book project, getting grants. Now if we had children, we would have competing concerns. Would this be a good thing or a bad thing? I have no idea.

Tonight I wrote out holiday cards. I mainly used cards that I grabbed when we cleaned out a deceased person’s library. I add to this box now and then. Someday someone will inherit this box, making it the everlasting card box. Cards could keep going out until, you guessed it, the end of time.

Next: 350. 12/21/22: Winter Solstice