Why do we humans live in a constant state of low-grade fear, like we’re constantly fighting an existential cold? Sure, we distract ourselves with work, play, household chores, sex, television and church, but deep down, the fear is there: what happens when I close my eyes the last time?

We don’t know.

I don’t care how much religious faith or atheistic certitude you think you have–you do not know.

So, is it that uncertainty that’s the true source of fear?

If you knew that when it was all over that you’d go somewhere else–another plane of existence, another place, a state of being–hell, even another lifetime on Earth as someone else–would it eliminate the fear of living day to day?

At first I think it would, but then it hits me: If that uncertainly were gone, would we truly live at all?

God grant me a distraction.