“Death is the ultimate source of both the tragedy and the beauty of a human life. Moreover, death's tragedy is the source of life's beauty and vice versa. Although it is better that we are mortal, it is nevertheless a shame that we have to die. To die brings to a pointless end the involvements that make up our lives. And yet without that pointless end those involvements themselves might have no point. They would only be part of the endless passing show. They would be unable to touch us. That is to say, without the beauty of the moments that we are granted in this life, our death would be no tragedy; and without the tragedy of death, those moments would have no beauty. In this sense, as in the other senses we have discussed, death is the deepest and most important fact about us. To be human is to die and, more importantly, to know that one will die throughout one's life, even when (or especially when) we go to great lengths to avoid that knowledge.”