Individuals are born and die. Society perseveres. It comes before citizens and will still exist once they are gone. Which do you think is more important?

You are wrong. She defied us the moment she rejected our verdict and opposed her sentence. The laws she undermined are the ones that preserve our order, bring our children into this world, rear them, and protect them up to their deaths. Regardless of how she may have deemed her sentence, refusing the verdict was a crime on its own. The worst crime. What would happen to our society and the peace we value so dearly if actions like hers were left unpunished?

Happy?! I don’t know. But I am free and I am alive. There are those who resent not being seen, and I suppose that our invisibility, compounded by the thousands of people who pass us on the street every day without looking into our eyes, is indeed a symptom of something being wrong with our society. But I do not mind it. I would rather be out of a system designed to enslave me. This is my pilgrimage; like a monk, I have abandoned my old life in search of myself.

Not really, No. I don’t think of the poem as being negative. To me, it evokes a feeling that can never truly be expressed in words, the feeling of losing someone…. Aside from whether we think of death as a passage to something else or as the end of everything, aside from whether the thought of it fills us with fear and anguish or leaves us indifferent, there is an unfillable longing, a desperate ache for the person who was loved and is lost.

The eternal dark awaits us. And yet, the certainty of death does not lessen life’s worth. So much of what we possess and who we are has been given to us by the dead. Perhaps, death is not the tragedy we were led to believe. Though at times silently, I believe our lives are always of consequence.

You know, Sam, the other night as darkness descended, it occurred to me that our essence is that of the stars. Perhaps, we were part of the stars at some point in the past and will be again in the future. Isn’t that amazing? What we are now is just one of the millions of temporary states we will take during the course of time…. I do not fear the darkness any longer, I focus on the stars….

When in doubt about whether an action is good or bad, I ask myself whether it will hurt another person. Regardless of whether we can pinpoint the ultimate meaning of existence, aren’t people important?

Ok, fair enough, people have the right to know! But is their right to know more important than my right to safety? Why should I reveal something about myself that will put me in danger? Why do you keep quiet about being a vampire?

Don’t the stories we tell shape the views of our listeners? You ask me about Darkness, but whose Darkness do you know? Why was he presented to you?” asked Nagasaki dispassionately.She did not reply, startled by the unexpected answer. His questions confused her, and it suddenly occurred to her that, perhaps, her dreams have been orchestrated by someone.

Dreams…I lived life searching for big answers…. I wanted to make a difference, change the world. Now, I realise the world will be fine without me, and I wish that I had focused on living well instead….