4347. NOT EQUIPPED TO RESUSCITATE THE DEAD

NOT EQUIPPED TO RESUSCITATE THE DEAD

I am not equipped to resuscitate the dead, and

I'm not sure I'd want to if I was. Better, perhaps,

to lead the mourning and let the chips fall where they

may instead. I am really not equipped to resuscitate

the dead. I have read the books and all those stories :

'Lazarus, arise!' and all the rest  -  that stinking foul

offal of garbage and dread, piles of bones and the

ranks of the dead  -  and think perhaps it would be

better just to walk off. Mourning and crying maybe.

Yes, that would do. We cannot re-write a chapter,

re-do the plot, re-order the ending. Everything we

live has a better logic of its own. The Union dead,

or all those Cossacks lying flat upon the field, those

hordes of Chinese warriors, those Arubic warriors

panting on the African steppes : simply let them be.

They have played their plot and run their races,

ended their goals and left their traces. What

care I for that? A better thing for one

man to do - just live morally, singular

and sole. Leave all the rest alone.