A story by Ursala LeGuin has a scene where a visitor discovers that the people there can actually predict the future. The visitor wonders why the locals don’t think this is a big deal. They ask him, what is the one sure thing that we can say about the future, yours and mine? He answered, That we shall die. Yes, they reply: “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” On the other hand there is a tradition of “memento mori,” of reflecting on death to find the meaning of life. Perhaps we can unite these two strands by heeding the attitude of terminally ill Sr. Thea who declared she was going” to live until she died.”
