A sinister violence of intention—that indefinable something which forces it upon the mind and the heart of a man, that this complication of accidents or these elemental furies are coming at him with a purpose of malice, with a strength beyond control, with an unbridled cruelty that means to tear out of him his hope and his fear, the pain of his fatigue and his longing for rest: which means to smash, to destroy, to annihilate all he has seen, known, loved, enjoyed, or hated; all that is priceless and necessary—the sunshine, the memories, the future; which means to sweep the whole precious world utterly away from his sight by the simple and appalling act of taking his life.

From “Lord Jim” by Joseph Conrad

Using a mixture of poetry and realism, Conrad writes his powerful prose with crescendo to describe death: “to tear out of him his hope and his fear, the pain of his fatigue and his longing for rest … to destroy, to annihilate all he has seen, known, loved, enjoyed, or hated; all that is priceless and necessary—the sunshine, the memories, the future.” We all conceive our demise differently.  Tonight, I would rather end this snippet with an optimistic view. As we say in Spain “Que me quiten lo bailao”, which literally means “I dare death to take away from me what I’ve danced.” Death can steal from you everything but the fun you had.