Summary
How scared are you of dying? That's the cheery subject of this week's column. With death, taxation and disaster for the Scottish football team the only certainties in life, the understandable human tendency is to not only to try to hold the grim reaper at bay, but to avoid all talk of terminal things. Except jokes, of course. Ye laugh, for ye mon daurna cry.
At the end of the day - now there's a phrase - there's no escaping your date with destiny. A Persian parable puts it thus: a rich Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He persuaded his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran. When he had gone, the master questioned Death: "Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?"See the full content of this document
Extract
The Last Thing You Want to Talk About
"I didn't threaten him," said Death. "I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran."
Ach well. Our first brush with death may come for us as children when ...See the full content of this document
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