In this symposium, better is it to only sit in silence. To express ones feelings as the end draws near is too intimate a task. That I would mention only one thought that comes to me as a listener-in: the riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal, there is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill, there is time to hear the kind voice of friends, and to say to oneself, the work is done. But just as one says that, the answer comes, the race is over, but the work never is done while the power to work remains.
The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest; it cannot be while you still live. But to live is to function, that is all there is in living. So I end with a land from a Latin voice: death, death, clutches my ear, and says, live, I am coming.--By Oliver Wendell Holmes.
