Yes I know that is very true. Yet though I have lost all my loved ones in the past, I still now find that I am once more in a relationship, which most likely will end in another grief, because my friend is much older than me. Yet I can not help but build on relationships, even if they only start as the most casual of friendships, they are bound to grow, and my friend has now reached the stage where she needs care. I can not walk away. And very often I do manage to put a smile on to her face, which is a great reward. I do not pretend that I am doing anything grand or good, merely make the point that we are all trapped between our fears and our desires, and that there is no harm in loving or not loving, just perhaps a little more life in doing.

For once, a quote from a Christian author.

" But if in your fear you would seek only
love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover
your nakedness and pass out of love’s
threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you
shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears."

Khalil Gibran

Thanks for talking about death.

I agree. To see the idea nicely illustrated, check your public library for the 1933 movie, “Death Takes A Holiday”. You’ll probably have to request an Interlibrary Loan. The longer 1998 movie “Meet Joe Black” is a more recent take on the theme. Both are on DVDs.

Dead is dead. The great equalizer, no mater who or what you are, at some point you will be dead.

The eminent sir Len Hazell
Quite certain he'd never gazelle
Called death ineluctable fate
While kismet was never too late

@Polemicist
I've never heard Gazelle used as a verb before, though it does work as an eye rhyme the ell in my name is pronounced with a very soft glutaral breath on the last vowel as in the colloquial English pronunciation of "they'll" Haz'll as opposed to the hard e used in the pronunciation of HazEl the nut (completely different etymology)

@LenHazell53 It's gaze hell while maintaining some rhyme to the clerihew.

The sun doesn’t rise you flat earther!

My dog or dogs are provided for in my will, with a designated "person" and a lot of money to care for them as they get elderly too.

Yes, although I think that concern for what our life's end may have on others, is more about the loss of life, rather than death in the sense Epicetus is talking about, which some people wrongly imagine to be an alternate state of existence. Which mistake I think is what he was addressing here. If you are a moral person, then I think that you will worry about the effect your loss of life will have on others, sometimes I think it would be good to sever all ties and give everything away before I die.

@annewimsey500 Same . But still . I worry

@annewimsey500, @Fernapple richard wisdom

@Pralina1 There is no guarantee of time of life. You could go back 20 years and be hit by a truck crossing the street. The only thing age should do is make you happy you have had the time to enjoy all those things you fear losing. Enjoy every moment, don’t waste time worrying about if you will have tomorrow. There is really no way to know.

@Barnie2years u are 100% right ♥️