I experience grief. Not the same way you do, for reasons that should be obvious. But I understand it; I understand loss that cannot be revoked or undone, I understand the mortal condition and I’m charred by it. That is the reason, Lihua, that we can’t afford to lose what we have built—what I have tried to build. Haruspices teach us pain, and pain is a necessary survival mechanism. To lose the capacity for it and for grief would doom the Mandate to stagnation. We would be, but no longer become. By nature we must be in flux to grow. Orfea
