9501. THE NUMBERS OF THE DEAD

THE NUMBERS OF THE DEAD

The numbers of the dead are startling. All

those names and beings. I sit here again,

reading, and am only confounded by 

absence. Not absinthe now, I said

absence  -  the sense of things being

gone. Which is what absence is. It's

a Latin compound, you know, like so

many other of our words. 'Ab,' that 

means 'from' - as in 'take away,' and

'removal.' And then they graft that

onto the basic word from which we

take the idea of 'being' or 'presence.'

Like 'sentient.' So this is 'without

presence,' without a 'being,' or at

least a sense of. "Lack of Being' -

at least sort of. Of course, strangely,

we also have (just used) 'presence.'

Which is the very same thing but in

the other direction : meaning 'pre',

or 'before' sense. An idea of 'Being

right there. Right before you.

Present, that is. Well, not like the

dead then in any sense.