Immediately after Niezstche's Zarathustra gives his prologue, the tight rope walker who carries on above him and the onlooking town folk—plunges to his death. The following conversation ensues between the Z and the fallen prior to the latter's last breath:

“By my honor, friend,” answered Zarathustra, “all that of which you speak does not exist: there is no devil and no hell. Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further.”

The man looked up suspiciously. “If you speak the truth,” he said, “I lose nothing when I lose my life. I am not much more than a beast that has been taught to dance by blows and a few meager morsels.”

“By no means,” said Zarathustra. “You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands.”

To die by one's vocation.

That is perhaps the highest form of passion. To live and perish in the thrill of one's purpose and the moments that made life meaningful for that individual. That is the ultimate form of living.

Perhaps, it is living dangerously, but it is also living.

How many heroes have done much the same? Those we hold in the highest esteem live and die by that which they know to be their calling.

9.11 and the bold acts of all the municipal servicemen that perished is a poignant example.

But just the same, the likes of the greatest artists, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs and other elite minds and imaginations who died of old age are equally laudable because they held their course in life, they overcame obstacles and defeated monsters, and outwitted conformity, complacency and their seven ugly sisters: jealousy, envy, virtue, material value, righteousness, apathy, and the unknown.

"Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."
~ Mary Schmich

The greatest journeys are always alone and end with death, which is why the journey itself should be the ultimate goal. Fulfillment comes with the fulfilling. If you constantly are looking to go somewhere in order to achieve happiness, you'll really never get there.

"That's the message of the myth. You, as you know yourself, you are not the final term of your being. And you must die to that, one way or another—giving of yourself to something or in being annihilated, actually, physically—to return, you might say, or to recognize (that) life is always on the edge of death—always. And one should lack fear, and have the courage of life. That's the principle initiation of all of the heroic stories."
~ The Power of the Myth, Joseph Campbell

the fountain inside .95 97. i am a fugitive

l.m