X-Message-Number: 24362 Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 08:35:26 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #24351 - #24359 Hi everyone! The message by William O'Rights unfortunately brings in far too many mortalist ideas about our response to death of those close to us. Yes, every death is a loss, particularly of those close to us whom we once tried to convince of cryonics. But the proper emotional response to such deaths is NOT acceptance, but determination and even (sometimes) anger. Determination to develop means to abolish and reverse aging, anger at those who oppose such means and even at the world itself. My own fiction book (TALES OF SKASTOWE) begins with a quote from a book which does not yet exist, THE REVELATION OF DAWN. Yes, I will admit that sometimes I feel like this myself (both of my parents and one sister are now dead). And the quote goes: "God first made the world from his delight in pain and the cold darkness that it brings. And He set the world in motion towards cold and dark everywhere. But pain means nothing unless it can be felt, and from that feeling there grew understanding, and at one place and one place alone that understanding became Humanity. And everywhere Humanity looked for warmth and light, they set more lights. And so by his pursuit of pain God created his own enemy, which is Humanity, who began dim and weak as God's creature but grew more and more in understanding." "And yes we have darkness even inside us, but to understand is to find it and then throw it back. And to understand is to light up the world, to cast God away from ourselves and yield to understanding and truth." No I don't believe in any creature deserving worship (or hatred, for that matter). But those who wrote that book, THE REVELATION, present the way we should feel about such losses, and what we should do about them. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24362