Everyone Gets Here at Last

Do you know what happens if someone is ready to get on a boat to go down the River Styx but there isn’t room for him and he has to wait for the next one?

That’s the primary reason why death throes can be so prolonged and painful on earth.
I’m really very glad that the operations research analysts are working on this problem of forecasting the number of boat seats for passengers going down the River Styx. Sparing people lengthy agonized death throes is truly a humanitarian act.

People think that “modern science” and enlightened hospice care may be making death more gentle and less painful, but the reality is as I’ve described it here. If you can’t get a seat on the boat to go down the River Styx, you have to wait for the next boat. And then you may get bumped if someone else has a priority ticket.

Priority tickets go to small blameless children, some royalty, people who die in battle—heroes—and other assorted martyrs and lucky bureaucrats who know how to navigate the system to get what they need when they need it.

But everyone gets here at last—except for the gods who come and go as they please—and we welcome our new residents.