X-Message-Number: 17395 Subject: Re: Saving James Swayze Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 10:28:23 -0500 From: Will Dye <> I confess I didn't read the original message in this thread. One of the reasons I gripe about off-topic messages is that I don't have the time to carefully read all of CryoNet every day, so I just skim quickly over it, and sometimes miss important stuff like this. James is dying or something? Well, if he can't quite afford a suspension, by all means lets pass the hat. Put me down for another $100. I'm far from rich, but truth be told the hardest part about this isn't the money, it's the argument I'm going to have with my cryonics-adverse wife when I tell her about it. :-) As for James' concerns that he can't pay us back, well, don't worry about it. As the old saying goes, you can never pay back, you pay forward. All of us are beneficiaries of someone in the past who did a great deed, or made a great sacrifice, for the benefit of those in the future. Not all of those sacrifices were well-placed or even properly intentioned, but the fact remains that most of the good things we have are at least in part the result of things donated to us by someone in the past. Yes, yes, I know about the general debate regarding altruism and if it even exists. I also know that the terminology in such matters is far from settled, so there's plenty of benefit to be had from using a time-tested old rule as long as it's used in it's proper context. Here's one such rule, in proper context: Liberty is not ours to squander. It is an inheritance, passed down by others, to be passed on to others. We can enjoy it, as well we should, but we should never consider it to be our own, for we did not develop it alone. That isn't exactly fair, and the concept involves a lot of poorly-defined ideas that can be badly misused; but perhaps that's appropriate, for as near as I can tell, the universe just works that way. A lot of people that I've never met have paid a lot higher price than $100 to help me maintain my liberty. I really don't mind chipping in this little bit to help someone else maintain theirs. Good Lord willing, James, you'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to do something nice for someone else. If you can't pay it back, then just pay it forward -- with interest. --Will Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17395