Russell A. Cardwell Online

I was just thinking of a conversation I had 2 or 3 years ago with a friend who said, “I’m completely self-sufficient. I can do everything for myself.”

I remarked, “You can’t bury yourself.” She laughed. It was a bitter kind of wisecrack. It diffused the mood.

I didn’t think she was prepared to hear the meaning hidden behind the humor. This was a person so thickly shielded that she couldn’t even feel her own pain. I know what that is like: I wore a shell like that for a long time. It is hard to take off.

Even after you have taken it off, it is hard to keep it from growing back.

People may be unfaithful and unjust, but you cannot live a fulfilling life without them. I think it was Andrew Marvell that wrote:

The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Not only can you not bury yourself, you can’t live inside your casket.

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