THE RECENT DEATH OF DAVID, alone, blue, by his own hand, brings this discourse to a close and opens many others. The recent death of David does to Jonathan and Joe something profound and dissatisfying. To me, the recent death of David shines a wide blue floodlight on the rootlessness of intelligence. The recent death of David goes to show that a modern man can be too smart for his own good, that the dumb world stares dumbly, that no shoes will ever fit certain feet. Like Jonathan's and Joe's. Take Jonathan and Joe, and then take me.

There is assuredly little glory in the recent death of David. There is plenty of suffering, despair, the dumb worldly stare. The recent death of David, despite the intellect and endnotes and exuberances and neuroses, is a story of pain unredeemed. He wrote often about it. There was nothing to be done about it but bear it, until it could be borne no more.

Jonathan and Joe will carry the weight for a while, and I will help, despite the recent death of David by his own blue hand. But it feels heavier, and dumber to expend such effort. With only two hands, the recent death of David promotes an empty-handedness. Is there a thing to carry? Do Jonathan and Joe know where to put it? Can I ensure its safe arrival in one solid piece? Of course not. Not according to the recent death of David.

There is selfishness in the recent death of David, and selflessness. There is meaning and meaninglessness. There is love and fear, and the great failures of the world. The recent death of David might suggest that the world is not dumb, though it stares dumbly and often at its best friends. The world knows exactly what it is doing. In this blue floodlight, the recent death of David is not only no accident, no sudden tragedy, no stomach-level shock to people like Jonathan and Joe and me, but rather the logic at work, working its way to the precise place where Jonathan and Joe and I will deliver this weight someday. The best among us appear to have arrived first.

There is little more to say about the recent death of David. He died recently, by his own hand, blue, guided by logic and despair and the world's dumb stare. He was the wide blue floodlight.


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