The elements—water, earth, fire, air—are our greatest friends, our animators. They feed us, warm us, give us life, and yet conspire to kill us at every juncture. But I don’t need their permission to take me away. If I could simply clap my hands and fall into a deep sleep out here, never to wake again, I would clap them. I would clap them again and again and again until I was gone from this world and reborn or forgotten, whatever the universe decided.
