<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> spike@rainier66.com <spike@rainier66.com> <br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, 6 April, 2022 2:03 PM<br><b>To:</b> 'ExI chat list' <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Cc:</b> spike@rainier66.com<br><b>Subject:</b> RE: [ExI] addiction<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>…</b>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Will Steinberg via extropy-chat<br><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] addiction<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…I do love my coffee, hot and black, nothing in it, just the pure rich substance which permeates the senses, awakens the enthusiasm for life, in a kind of a psychological bond of some sort. Coffee just tastes like morning to me, it smells like victory. spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>A play by Thornton Wilder, Our Town, was one which resonated with me many years ago when I read it as part of a school assignment. The character Emily had perished, but some years later was given a vision or out-of-grave experience to visit her town. She is astonished at how she now sees life, every day a gift, filled with ordinary things, all of them as miraculous as her post-life vision. Eventually she is overcome with grief for having appreciated so little in her brief mortal existence. In the last scene Emily opines:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“…I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back… up the hill… to my grave. But first, WAIT! One more look.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“Good-bye, good bye world. Good-bye Grovers Corners… Mama and Papa. Good bye to clocks ticking… and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee… And new-ironed dresses and hot baths… and sleeping and waking up. Oh earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Emily turns to the stage manager: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every every minute?”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Stage manager: No. The saints and poets maybe. They do some…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-right:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></blockquote></div></div></body></html>