When I was a child I believed that when you died you
arrived at the foyer of Heaven and were presented with a stack of white
envelopes. In these envelopes were all
your harmful actions, on glossy paper, comprehensively described and depicted,
or, as salesmen say, lavishly illustrated.
The first thing you must do when you die is go through all
these envelopes. (Although it is not generally
known, all people when they die are given a letter-opener.)
For some people the envelopes and their contents are a
simple operation, just tidying up, like going through the mail after a long day
at work. Others receive such a deluge of
envelopes that they must spend much of eternity opening them. In these envelopes, you see, not one nuance
can be overlooked and not one detail missed.
Eternity’s post may not be skimmed.
You have no choice but to see everything.
I think now of these white envelopes, as I look around to
find that I have surrounded myself with white note cards, on which I endlessly
compose, although to no clear purpose.
These stammering cards now fill half the house in their weird profusion.
As I sit here, it seems that I can almost see a mountain of
white envelopes, the envelopes which are all the time arriving in the other
world, like the senseless ceaseless proliferation of white note cards in this
one.
I think it is not unreasonable of me to fear that there may
be some correlation.
1 comment:
I'm reading your entire blog in chronological order. I started about a year ago, and the reading happens in fits and starts. I'm presently in the midst of a reading boom, and have reached this post - 30 September '13.
I can feel panic setting in - in a few days or weeks I'll be up to date, and for the first time in a year, unable to immerse myself in this archive of witticisms and insights.
I'd therefore like to lodge a request that you speed up your writing (please). Or I'll have to go back to the start and reread.
Post a Comment