Dear Oscar,

I was wondering if you knew what was happening to you, and if you could foresee what would happen. With the benefit of hindsight it all seems utterly predictable, as if you should have seen what was about to occur, that you could have planned differently, been more aware. I am wondering now if that is the case for all of us, that there are set inevitabilities about existence, and that all we can do is welcome each of them as they come. Very little happens that is truly surprising, that is so out of the concept of the ordinary that it becomes even remarkable.

Yes, there are natural disasters that suddenly crop up on news media that make us all sit up and think, but I wonder how unusual they are for the people affected, or for the people who have been arguing that these supposedly freak occurrences were bound to happen at some point in time. There is always some cause to whatever effect, even if it is one that is not readily foreseen. It is almost as if we are actually taught to ignore the obvious. I am in pain. I ignore the pain. I self-medicate in one way or another in order to try to suppress the pain. I seek medical advice and they too work to suppress the pain. But the pain persists, grows, becomes something more difficult to conquer. I die, it is reported, happy, and having lived a fulfilled life. That old story. Nobody seems to want to investigate the pain. My village cannot fish because oil tankers have polluted the water. People keep jumping from the top of tall buildings. Oscar, I do wonder if we ever learn anything of value at all.

With best wishes to you, as always,

Algernon B. Duffoure.