Keats died at an age when no one should have to die. I wonder if the young are less afraid of dying, or more afraid of dying, than the old. I am no longer young. I am old enough to understand and know that it is not death I am afraid of, it’s dying. Dying is the act, most often painful, that leads to death, while death itself is as painless as the feeling you had before you were born—no feeling at all, you didn’t care one way or another (feeling is caring one way or another). But what do I know? Blessed Brother André, currently under investigation for sainthood, said, “If we knew the value of suffering, we would ask for it.” Though others can, I cannot fathom that remark, let alone embrace it. Nor am I a Buddhist, one who believes suffering is based on ignorance, and that ignorance can be eradicated; actually, I do believe that suffering is based on ignorance (if the Third Reich had not been ignorant, millions would not have had to perish), but I don’t believe ignorance can be eradicated. Actually, I do believe ignorance can be eradicated, but in the way of a weed—it will only pop up again someplace else.

In the current election campaign it is possible to perceive a contest between two kinds of fearing.

One campaign seems motivated by fear of fundamental change.  The other campaign is not opposed to change, but is afraid change is moving in the wrong direction.

In some ways each campaign has accurately discerned reality: The change we are experiencing is profound and beyond our control.

But in each case fear overestimates our power to undo or direct this change.  We are riding a flood.  With considerable effort we may be able to move vaguely left or awkwardly right, but the flood will take us where it chooses more than we choose.

The risks are real.  Our emotional responses will range widely and are, in any case, also beyond our control. But as Ruefle set out at the start, with cognition we determine what feelings will emerge from our emotion.

Exhilaration, excitement, expectation are, I perceive, more helpful than fear.