Inspirational Reflections on Life:Death Wins...Life Wins by Will Durant

Music:
Frank Sinatra's My Way(Instrumental)-Richard Clayderman

Death Wins...Life Wins
Will Durant
Fallen Leaves:last words on life,love,war & God.

Here is an old man on the bed of death,harassed with helpless friends and wailing relatives. What a terrible sight it is – this thin frame with loosened and cracking flesh,this toothless mouth in a bloodless face,this tongue that cannot speak, these eyes that cannot see! To this pass youth has come, after all its hopes and trials;to this pass middle age, after all its torment and its toil.To this pass health and strength and joyous rivalry; this arm once struck great blows and fought for victory in virile games.

To this pass knowledge,science, wisdom:for seventy years this man with pain and effort gathered knowledge; his brain became the storehouse of a varied experience, the center of a thousand subtleties of thought and deed; his heart through suffering learned gentleness as his mind learned understanding; seventy years he grew from an animal into a man capable of seeking truth and creating beauty. But death is upon him,poisoning him,choking him,congealing his blood,gripping his heart,bursting his brain,rattling in his throat. Death wins.

Outside on the green boughs birds twitter,and Chantecler sings his hymn to the sun. Light streams across the fields; buds open and stalks confidently lift their heads; the sap mounts in the trees.Here are children: what is it that makes them so joyous,running madly over the dew-wet grass, laughing, calling,pursuing,eluding,panting for breath,inexhaustible? What energy, what spirit and happiness! What do they care about death? They will learn and grow and love and struggle and create,and lift life up one little notch,perhaps,before they die.

And when they pass they will cheat death with children, with parental care that will make their offspring finer than themselves. There in the garden’s twilight lovers pass, thinking themselves unseen; their quiet words mingle with the murmur of insects calling to their mates; the ancient hunger speaks through eager and through lowered eyes,and a noble madness courses through clasped hands and touching lips. Life wins.