I'M NOT AFRAID OF DYING . . .

. . . I JUST DON'T WANT TO BE THERE WHEN IT HAPPENS ! \" - Woody Allen

Dear One & All,

I'm sharing that with you mostly because I think it's such a wonderful quote. But also maybe because I'm at a point where I think about my mortality a great deal and I guess I share Woody Allen's sentiments. Do you?

I certainly have been aware of wanting to make sure I do certain things while I still have lots of vitality. Two years ago, because my beloved parents were dying and so my mortality seemed to be looming, too, and I am afraid of heights (acrophobic) and afraid of falling from a great height, (bathophobic) in addition to having inner ear vertigo, I decided that I should face my fears and go skydiving. As I left the airplane, falling for 60 seconds at 120 miles per hour, which was for me an incredibly violent sensation, two words flashed through my head: \"Never again!\"

Sometimes I believe that the incredible courage demonstrated by our Correspondents is rather like skydiving; an enormous leap of faith, to say the least. And yet, as in my case, the landing is sometimes the easiest, gentlest part. It's getting started, committing to getting in the small, bumpy airplane with the side door that stays open during take-off and is still open during the flight, and having the blind courage, even when we we're terribly weary and sorrowful, to lean way over and fall out the side of the airplane a mile up, that takes intestinal fortitude. Or desperation. It doesn't really matter which.

I would hope I'd have the courage to keep on, working for the betterment of the world, in the face of despair, as you do. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane (as the old joke says) is easy compared to the work you each are doing -- and you, too, of course, Dear Mentors ! -- I believe that with all my heart.

Wishing You Comfort and Joy,

Sarah