The Laments of Man: Letters of Zechariah.

Greetings my Prince,

Forgive me, but I can imagine. There, not a single day passes that I do not imagine. Yet, today remains but a little while. Only yesterday it was morning and time seemed to have raced rather than walk, or drift as we expect it would. It is not a fault of time, you see, not of death, and not of those things which we dread as if they were not just evils but afflictions. See then if this follows: that one thing should be good at one time and be evil at another time, if one thing shall bring joy now and at a later time, cause trepidation. You may argue, as you often do, that neccesity must be considered, and that what is neccesary at one time may not be neccesary at another. But neccesity can be neither a good nor a bad. Nothing can. You still may argue, that if neccesity is neither a good nor an evil, why do those men who cry out to their gods plead their cases on no other foundation than that they have done what was only neccesary. Take him then to his own court, and present his case before him, gently explaining to him that what he had taken into his possession or anything he has come to value as priceless does not come by chance but by what he chooses. Therefore, it follows then that no one chooses what is due to chance, but even in the randomness of chance, a man can still choose.
Many men suffer therefore, not what has been pressed upon them by chance but what they themselves have chosen. The afflictions of love, the betrayal of trust, the undeserved end to life, and all others things that concerns the mere man did not fall upon him as he wishes to claim, but rather what he had chosen, perhaps ignorantly but never unintentionally. I hear the rain, and the soft melody of the pattering drops saying, "stand your ground man, and live. For no man lives two lives!" "why do you dread change?" they say, "or death, or trials or anything which has an element of endurance?" All things are as you will it, and nothing is new to the universe and if anything be new, it is certainly not strange. Whatever has come by chance is nothing but a change, a mere transition, but what is good or evil remains totally in our choosing, therefore, choose to enjoy life without any apprehension of death, or love or the time that cuts short of itself. It is true indeed, that no one steps in the same river twice, and that which has flown is way gone, and that which is to come is on its way. And here lies the fault of men, they linger after what has gone, afraid of what is to come, and complain of what is.

Published by Aseneca.