An Old Man Faces the Crisis- Real-Life Stories

I shall proceed to stand. What you have received is an
{aide memoire} on a very important subject. But it happens in a
peculiar way; it always does with me. When I'm greatly saddened,
I generally turn to great joy, and that's what I've done on this
occasion.

There are many reasons for sadness, one of which I'll
mention. As Rick has informed me, I shall be leaving here in the
course of August, and I shall remain there until after my
birthday on the 8th of September, which means I may never return.
And that's a sad thing. But the circumstances are such, if we
don't improve our behavior here, in the United States, there is
not going to be a civilization for people, and people who are
found in Europe at the time that that breakdown occurs, will not
get back here easily, may not even survive.

That's the nature of life. And that's the nature of the
great cowardice which I bestow, as an honorarium, on the stinking
people of the United States, who don't have {guts} to fight. On
my own generation, I say it was heroic. I say, on subsequent
generations, probably for no fault of their own, they're not
heroic.

And so, I thought suitable, this afternoon, and in
discussion with some of our friends, gathered in a trailer, to
present something which I've been working on for some time, as an
argument to be made, on the subject of life, on the subject of
the immortality of the human soul. And then, to add something to
that, because a friend of mine who is present in the audience,
has a project, and a way with which I'm very pleased, and will be
his claim -- one of his claims, which will be numerous, I'm sure
-- to immortality; so what we did, I walked out into the trailer,
where I found, to my astonishment, the great husbanding of a
whole bunch of my friends. And so, listening to them for a few
minutes, I was inspired to release something I've been working
on, which I thought was a suitable thing for this occasion, on
the immortality of the human soul.

Now, I've spoken of this before, on several occasions, and
it's appropriate now. And it was a thing that had us all
laughing. I think all of us will laugh about this. Some of
those who were there, can attest to what they thought what I was
doing, and some of them enjoyed it; I think perhaps all of them
enjoyed it. Because I spoke of mankind, as I have on a couple of
earlier occasions, as the immortal species.

So, let us, as we prepare for my departure here, which is
not occurring immediately, but will be a very tight schedule, as
Rick has reminded me today, a very tight schedule of events and
activities, and there will not be much time, for quiet
socializing. It will be a tough time, particularly when you
think, that these months, between that point in August and my
birthday in September, is a time in which it's very easy to lose
the connections which life defines. And therefore, I would like
to leave -- I'm not leaving immediately, of course, -- but I
would like to leave you, at least on this occasion, with the
opportunity to consider what I have to put before you tonight. I
think you may like it. And some of our people, gathered in the
trailer were highly amused.

But it's also a very serious subject, a very profound
subject, is the nature of humanity, the nature of the human soul.
And so, I called it, "Yours."

So, my wife and I will be there, in that time. And remember
me, and us, should something go awry, in case I'm no longer here,
both of us.

This has quite a history to it. But I have quite a history
to me, too, so I'm not surprised by it.

But the joyous factor, there are the two factors I wish to
point out to your attention tonight: And the first is, the
question of the mankind as an immortal species, a subject on
which I've spoken before, that mankind, unlike animals, is the
ruler, the ruling species of the Solar System as we know it,
possibly a ruling species among the inhabitants of the galaxy.
What distinguishes us, who are equivalent to this in our
capacity, is the fact that we express immortality of the human
species, in a very elementary way, which anyone who's
scientifically inclined can understand quickly, which is the
cause of our merriment, which I provoked in the trailer this
afternoon. And they were laughing their butts off, at what I was
saying. But it's all true -- and that's the best thing to laugh
about, is things that are true.

The human species has two characteristics: First of all, the
human species is the species of our planet, probably the species
of our Solar System, possibly the species of our galaxy. These
are matters which we don't have final answers on. But we do know
our relative position, as human, as opposed to all other living
species.