Throughout our lives, we desire many different gifts but rarely desire death. We come to fear our end and so seek what we think are better gifts, rather than face what is the end of all mortals.
Yet, in his short story, “The Five Boons of Life,” Mark Twain focuses on how we should see death, not as the end of our blessings but as a blessing in and of itself. Twain shows that, too often, we choose the wrong gifts for the wrong reasons, avoiding death all the while.
A Fairy Visits
A good fairy visits a youngster, and she carries a basket full of boons, or desirable gifts: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, and Death. She tells the youth: “Take one, leave the others. And be wary, choose wisely; … for only one of them is valuable.”…