The Long Black Veil; or, The Hereafter in the Now By Dale Williams Barrigar

(images by Dale, the header is a poster in Leila’s office)

Every single word of this little monologue with a huge topic, a topic as big as it could possibly be, far, far bigger than anything current science or technology (AI included) can come up with, is deliberately chosen, and purposely placed exactly in the exact right place (whether awkward or not) where it magically happens to go (showing the unity of all things). When I say bigger than anything, AI included, I mean it:

I would rather rest in air (be cremated and flung to the winds over waters) but if I had to rest in earth I could do it here, as long as it’s like a Nathaniel Hawthorne story with all his beautiful women become one favored woman in the end, the platonic ideal of the human in snatches; or the song “Long Black Veil,” penned by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin, as sung by Lefty Frizzell, in Nashville, in 1959.

Dale Williams Barrigar

And for a look at a similar idea…

To Be To Not to Be by Leila Allison

To Be or Not to Be is the most famous literary line in the English language. A six word statement; thirteen letters; four words (two repeats); three of the words contain two letters, one has three.

A lot can be accomplished by expressing the same thought in slightly different ways. I recall a country song from decades back that asked (I paraphrase): Should I kill myself or go bowling? That is the same question, but it contains an added touch of absurdity, which, I think, might have made the Bard smile.

The evil act called War can be viewed as a variation of the question. If you are the Leader of a nation who has declared war, you have made that choice for many people, friends and enemies. (That part doesn’t matter: the voices of the dead all scream the same.) It used to be that Leaders had the decency to “stand the hazard of the die” like Richard III, but you do not see a lot of that anymore. Anyway, in the end, War is simply organized murder and lacks much in the way of irony.

When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet there was something between 500 to 600 million people in the world. The population is close to nine billion today. And let’s not forget the 25 to 30 billion whose lives began, lived and ended since 1600. That’s a lot of To Be or Not to Be. Nature, as in the provider of our lives and maximum lifespans, of course, looks at it as To Be to Not to Be. Still thirteen letters, same word sizes, but the change of one letter that reduces the separate word count to three has much meaning, yet removes any question and, like War, it lacks much in irony. And in the case of one William Shakespeare, Nature’s version reads 23.04.64 to 23.04.16. (Even though it has a touch of symmetry, here, minus the centuries, we see where the simplicity of numbers fails to completely convey the depth of Will’s “Ago.”)

In the 335 words following the opening quotation, little, if any, irony, has been added to the concept. But today I think I’d like to thank the Ghost of William Shakespeare for giving me a lot to consider.

Leila