Build To Last

"WHEN the Dread Messenger calls for you, let him not find you ill-equipped and unprepared. In the final hour, which must surely come, there will be no opportunity for fine speech and nought can delay his imperious command. Then all the possessions you have cherished and stored will be as nought, and all you will be able to take with you will be that which you have fashioned within.

Do not be numbered among the foolish who say, 'Time enough, for I am yet young". Death claims the breastchild as well as the aged, and on this you should ponder. Consider well your future estate.

Here you are the architect of your future abode, the plans prepared here are carried out in another place. Earth is the place of sowing, Heaven is the place of reaping.

Here you are the sculptor who chisels the statue, the potter who fashions the pot, the woodworker who carves the pillar. What is there on Earth more deserving of your care and attention than your own future form and appearance?

Do you recklessly hew or wilfully cut? Do you heedlessly pound the pliable clay and carelessly fashion the unfired pot? Do you mix the colours with proper thought?

What manner of thing are you fashioning in this great workshop? A beauteous being arrayed in radiant splendour, or a hideously foul fiend which can do nought but squirm in the slime of its fitting abode?

Whom will you praise for your prudence or curse for your lack of foresight? Who can force you to deal tenderly and responsibly with the slumbering child of your own self? Or prevent you from carelessly and wilfully shattering all hopes for its future wellbeing?"

The Kolbrin - Chapter Twenty-five - Fragment Twelve

~ g