With over 107,000 deaths in this country from the coronavirus, thought should be given to the late 18th-century writer Xavier de Maistre and his autobiographical novel “A Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room”:

“So — I will die one day? I will die? I — the person speaking, the person able to feel and touch myself — I might die? I find it rather difficult to believe: after all, others die, and there’s nothing more natural than that: you see it happen every day: you see them passing away, you get used to it; but for you to die, you yourself — you in person! Well, that’s a bit too much. And you gentlemen, you who think that these reflections are a load of nonsense, let me tell you that everyone thinks the same, you included! No one thinks that he is to die. If there were a race of immortal men, the idea of death would frighten them more than it does us.”

Covid-19 isn’t going away soon. Be warned: Wear a mask, practice distancing, do hand-washing. Life is short — don’t make it shorter.

Edwin Lefevre

Monessen

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